The Rise of Pulsar Company
by Difficulty Tweak
Summary: A moisture farmer turned bounty hunter and an escaped slave girl work together to get off Tatooine. The unlikely pairing leads them to even more unlikely situations in the opening years of the Galactic Civil War, where ancient megastructures, relics of wars long past, and treachery all await them in their creation of one of the most famous PMCs of the era: Pulsar Company.
1. First Hunt

**Before I begin this story, I want to mention some VERY FUCKING IMPORTANT THINGS**

 **The continuity this story follows is that of Legends, aka the old Expanded Universe, which is basically everything released prior to 2014, HOWEVER, there are some elements of the official Canon mixed in, although specifically what is will be revealed on a case by case basis. The only one I'm revealing right now is that Order 66 was done WILLINGLY, there was no control chip in the first place, simply because I find the idea of clones willingly killing their only friends more tragic than a magic control chip doing it.**

 **People familiar with my work on Grimm Retreat know that I bend the fuck out of lore and treat it more like a guideline than a rulebook. Thankfully, Star Wars is a lot more consistent than fucking RWBY could ever hope to be, so lore bending should hopefully be minimized. That, and I don't have crossover bullshit to deal with. I can't possibly rape the lore harder than official writers did, anyways. I ain't no fuckin C.S. Goto, dig?**

 **This story is set in 3 BBY.**

 **Fanon will be lightly used. Not overboard insane bullshit, but some of the cooler stuff. Not telling what, though, because where's the fun in that?**

 **Also, read and review. I can't stress enough how important this is; feedback is what makes a fanfiction good or not.**

 **That's all.**

* * *

Nax sat in the back of Chalmun's Cantina, leaning back in his seat. Despite how crowded the cantina was due to the Modal Nodes playing tonight, Nax's corner was totally barren. Nobody came to bother him, since everybody was crowded either around the bar for Ackmena, or the bandstand for the…

Nax kept trying to think of their name, but it never came to him. They were definitely one of the more popular bands, but he was a bit too drunk to care.

Anyways, it's not like he was complaining about the lack of company, though. Isolation was just how Nax liked it.

Nax looked down into his glass of whiskey, and his reflection looked right back at him. His light green and teal eyes contrasted heavily with his short, jet black hair and stubble. He also had unusually pale skin compared to other natives. Not to mention, his height was closer to that of a short Wookie, rather than the typical moisture farmer.

The smell of one of the Whiphids at the bar had finally reached Nax, so he downed the glass and pulled out his datapad from his brown duster to check his credits.

Less than a thousand credits. Far from ideal.

Nax sighed, and set the datapad back inside of the duster, fishing a few credits out and setting them on the table to pay for the bill. As he exited his corner, Nax nearly bumped into a group of rowdy Rodians, and managed to avoid getting hit in the face accidentally, but only just, with them cursing at him in Rodian. As he made his way towards the entrance, where the droid detectors were, he came face to face with a man in a black jacket and short, messy brown hair, with a Wookie following him. Nax and the man both tried to get past each other to get to their respective destinations, but only ended up blocking each other's path several times.

"What, you wanna dance, pal?" the man asked, a cocky expression on his face. Nax immediately identified the man as a Corellian. More than a few of them had frequented the Cantina, usually smugglers. One having a Wookie with him though? That was odd, but even with Nax's relative naivete, he knew he shouldn't upset the guy, so he just stepped aside and let him pass. "That's what I thought." the Corellian remarked, and the Wookie gave off a low growl, before they both walked by.

Nax continued moving towards the entrance, past the droid detectors, and to the left of the entrance, was a flat terminal with a blue screen, with multiple buttons and a slot on the right. Nax pulled his datapad out, extended the connector that was previously hidden in the case, and put it in the slot. Instantly, the terminal flared to life, and a list of available bounties came up on screen. Nax tapped the screen, holding his finger in place, and flicked it upward once, then twice, perusing the available bounties, the prices steadily increasing as he did so. Eventually, it would scroll no more, and the final bounty in the list ended at ten thousand credits. Nax tapped the tab with the 10k bounty, and it expanded into detail.

 _/ TARGET DETAILS /_

 _Name: Vark Rurmiid_

 _Race: Rodian_

 _Sex: Male_

 _Skin Color: Dark Green_

 _Wanted for: Murder, Arson, Assault of an Imperial Official, Terrorism_

 _Bounty: 10,500 Imperial Credits, Dead or Alive._

 _Distinct Features: Usually wears a jacket made of Trandoshan skin, identifiable by Mandalorian emblem on back, left antenna is cut, visible scars on face._

 _Last sighted: Mos Eisley, Kerner Plaza (5 days ago)_

 _Additional notes: Frequently carries an illegally modified DC-15S blaster, unconfirmed reports of anti-Imperial bodyguards, may have connections to terrorist cell. Target is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, use utmost caution when eliminating._

 _Submit either the target themself, or proof of death to Captain Mazz Gaffi at the Imperial Garrison in Mos Eisley to receive payment._

 _Download additional information to datapad? (Yes/No)_

Without hesitation, Nax hit Yes, and the terminal started working. As he stepped away from the terminal, someone tapped him on the shoulder. Nax turned around, expecting to see someone he may have wronged accidentally, but there was only a woman who reached just past Nax's chest. Her fair-skinned face was incredibly youthful, and she had long, white hair and bright blue eyes. Her clothes, however, were little more than peasant rags, but she didn't seem to mind. She absolutely didn't belong in Mos Eisley of all places, she looked too innocent and naïve, even compared to Nax. "Excuse me, are you a captain?" she asked.

Nax shook his head. "No." he said simply, revealing his Concord Dawn inflection of Basic.

The woman's eyes went wide, and she backed away. "Oh! You're a Mandalorian, I didn't mean to bother you!" she said, panicked, trying to escape the situation as fast as possible.

Nax just grabbed her arm as she tried to leave, and turned her to face him. "I'm not a Mandalorian, lady. Just sound like one. Now, what was that about a captain?" he asked firmly.

The woman calmed down, although she was still visibly on edge. "…Well, I'm looking for transport off-world." she slowly said, picking her words carefully.

"And you haven't found anyone willing to take you?"

The woman shook her head. "No, most… hmm," she paused. "let's say that most of the people in the "transportation" industry charge too much, and leave it at that."

Nax immediately understood what she was referring to. "Ah, I see. You don't have the credits to pay. Were you hoping I wouldn't be charging as much as they do?" Nax asked, and the woman nodded once. "Well, I've got news for you lady, I don't have a ship," Nax said, and the woman's expression turned sour, so she turned away, about to leave. "…But I do have an offer for you." Nax finished. The woman half-looked at him from the corner of her eyes, wary, but interested.

"…And what would that be?" she asked.

"You stick out like a sore thumb around here. Mos Eisley's about the worst place someone like you could be. By the time the suns come up, you'll be either dead or in chains, and that's if you're lucky."

She fully turned to face Nax, and he knew he had her full attention now. "So, what's the alternative to staying here?"

"You could come with me."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?"

Nax raised his hand, palm closed. "First," he raised one finger. "I've got a safe place for you to stay, and a bed for you to sleep in." He raised a second finger. "Second, I don't have a reason to kill you."

The woman paused to think. "How's this supposed to help me get off this rock?"

Nax grabbed the datapad from the terminal, and headed to the door, but paused at the frame. "The details are a tad sensitive, so I'd rather discuss them in private. That is, of course, if you're willing to come with me." he offered, gesturing outside the cantina. The woman looked back inside, and saw more than a few sets of eyes were staring at her.

She quickly looked back at Nax. "How do I know you're not lying to me?"

Nax shrugged nonchalantly. "You don't, but if you'd rather take your chances and stay in Mos Eisley, be my guest."

The woman looked back into the cantina, and then back to Nax when she saw that the number of eyes staring her down had only gone up. "Let's go." she said quietly, and both she and Nax exited the cantina. As soon as the door shut behind them, the woman whistled, and Nax heard an astromech beeping, and then the unmistakable sound of an astromech's motivator. Out from an alleyway in front of the cantina came a meter tall astromech, but instead of the droid having the domed head of an R2 unit like Nax was expecting, he saw a cylindrical head. The droid got closer, and stopped in front of Nax and the woman, right in the light of Tatooine's three moons.

The droid beeped happily, the lights on its chassis flickering. The woman gestured to the unit. "This is R5-G0, my… astromech." she hesitated at the end. R5 was, much to Nax's chagrin, an R5 unit. He'd heard horror stories from spacers about these little monstrosities. Bad motivators, bad attitudes, bad **everything**. Then again, an astromech was an astromech, and Nax's plan called for one.

R5 beeped three times, and then a panel on the chassis opened, extending its grasper, offering it to Nax, trying to shake hands. Nax took the droid's offer, and the droid's grasper slowly shook, before retracting into the shell. The droid then wobbled a bit, and spun its head around. "Looks like he likes you." the woman smirked. Maybe Nax was wrong, at least about this R5 unit. He did have to admit, he liked the droid's aesthetics compared to the R2 and R4 units.

Regaining his focus, Nax pointed around the side of the cantina. "My speeder's just over there."

* * *

The X-34's turbines winded down just outside of Nax's home. "This is the place." Nax said, pulling up at the base of a large hill in the dunes, with some vaporators nearby.

" _This_ is your home?" the woman asked incredulously, and R5 gave a long, low beep.

"It's the garage, but yes." Nax said, and the previously concealed garage opened up for the landspeeder. Nax gently guided the vehicle inside, and powered down the repulsors and turbines, the landspeeder hitting the ground with an audible _THUNK_. Nax and the woman both dismounted, and R5 rolled off the speeder, but Nax caught the droid, and righted him.

The lights then kicked on, and a door to a staircase that led to the rest of the house opened automatically. Nax, the woman, and R5 filtered through. At the bottom, they came to a four-way junction, and Nax pointed to the left. "Living room's that way, take a seat, I'll get you something to eat. Should have some bantha steaks left in the kitchen." he said, moving straight ahead towards the kitchen, while both R5 and the woman went to the living room.

Nax stepped into the sandstone kitchen. All of the appliances and furnishings contrasted heavily with the sandstone, but Nax didn't bother going over their meticulous little details. Instead, he walked to the sink to wash his hands and then he went for the conservator at the back, on the right side of the room from the entrance. On the front door was a small board with some notes on it.

 _Check the vaporators, air intakes might need cleaning. -Dad_

 _Restock on food, have a weeks worth left_

 _Get more packs for Trax's blaster_

Nax frowned at the first and third one, and he opened the conservator door, reaching for some of the bantha steaks on the shelf. He paused, and quickly realized he didn't have anything prepared beforehand, he grabbed a pan and set it on the stove, before taking one of the frozen steaks out and setting it on the pan, turning the stove on and closing the conservator. The steak quickly started thawing out, and soon, the smell of cooked bantha was wafting through the house. Nax had to practically sew his jaw shut to prevent himself from salivating all over the meal.

While he wasn't as good of a cook as he wished he was, he managed to cook the steak fairly evenly, about medium-rare. The woman hadn't specified what she preferred, so Nax just went with his own personal preference. He deliberated on adding seasoning and sauces, but decided against it. Grabbing a plate, he carefully slid the steak onto it, grabbed a fork and a knife and set them on the plate, and filled a glass of water up for her, and shut the stove off before carrying all of it to the living room.

The first thing he saw was the woman examining dear old dad's slugthrower rifle with her back turned to him. She evidently didn't know he was there, but R5 sure did. The droid rotated his head around slowly, and then let out a low whir to acknowledge Nax's presence. The woman then turned around, sweeping Nax with the barrel of the rifle, completely oblivious, and she locked eyes with him, dumbstruck. Nax was already tense, but then he noticed she had her finger on the trigger, and although the rifle wasn't pointed at him, he didn't want a ricochet.

Cautiously, the woman set the rifle back where it was hanging on the wall, and sat down on the couch. Nax set the plate and glass on the small table in front of her, and sat down adjacent to her in one of the living room chairs. There was a tense, uncomfortable silence, with the only sounds coming from R5 slowly turning its head between the two. Nax was entirely focused on the woman, keeping R5 in his field of view, and the woman was just staring silently at her plate.

She eventually quietly mumbled something, and dug in to the steak at a pace that would have made Nax's brother blush. In under a minute, the plate and the glass were both empty.

"…Thank you." she said quietly, not removing her gaze from the plate. Now that there wasn't any significant background noise, Nax could hear a faint upper class inflection in her voice, likely from the Core. That, however, failed to explain why she was in rags, and why she was all the way out in the Rim.

Nax shrugged it off. "It's not a problem. Now, on to business," Nax said, and the woman almost immediately jolted her head towards him. "You want off Tatooine, and so do I. Main problem is we're both poor and we don't have a ship. Now, I've accepted a bounty worth ten thousand credits to help pay for a decommissioned starfighter that I plan to buy off of a trader in Mos Espa for around sixty thousand credits. I'll need a partner to help make getting the money easier, and you're probably my best bet." The woman said nothing, and merely observed Nax, still cautiously weighing her options. "I'll give you half of whatever credits we have left once I get the ship, and then free transport to whatever world you want to go to. Coruscant, Naboo, anywhere you want."

The woman remained still, and said nothing.

"You don't have to answ-"

"Deal." she suddenly said, startling Nax.

He quickly regained his composure. "…Well, in that case, I've only got two questions. First, can you shoot?"

"…Only blaster pistols."

Whatever, Trax's DL-44 should work fine for her.

"Alright, noted, so second, what's your name?"

The woman was taken by surprise, and she hesitated for an unusual length of time for something as miniscule as a name. "….Kyra." she eventually relented.

"Nax." he replied, and the uncomfortable silence returned. Eventually, he broke the silence and coughed. "Well, Kyra, if you're going to be my partner, you're gonna need a place to sleep. Come on, I'll take you to my brother's room."

* * *

Nax had left Kyra and R5 in his brother's room to go make his own dinner. The room was pretty small, clearly only fit for one person. There was a dresser directly in front of the sliding door, with a single person bed to the left of the dresser, both of them taking up the entirety of the back wall.

Next to the head of the bed was a durasteel nightstand with a clock, and to the left of the doorway was a small desk with some tools on it. She let her guard down a bit, and walked up to the dresser, pulling out one of the drawers to reveal multiple sets of standard work clothes, or at least standard as you get on a backwater like Tatooine.

She started undoing the rags she had been wearing as of late, and pulled them off, tossing them on top of R5's head, revealing her lightly bruised body. She pulled out one of the more comfortable looking robes and slipped it on quickly, just in case Nax came in to check on her.

She immediately felt more at home, so she grabbed the rags off of R5's orange and white head, tossing them under the desk. R5 gave a happy string of beeps, and Kyra shut the light off, before collapsing on the bed, exhausted. She thought of one last thing before falling asleep.

" _Maybe things are finally turning around."_

* * *

 _Fear._

That was the one thing Kyra felt as she ran through the aged white corridors of the _Cranky Bantha_. She didn't care for the men chasing after her, or for the blaster bolts and slugs being sent her way. She didn't care for the klaxons blaring. She didn't even care that she would probably be killed.

All she wanted was to get off this damned ship.

She kept following the little astromech that had let her free through the seemingly endless corridors of this horror show of a corvette. Even though it was only minutes, it felt like hours. At corners, Kyra would blindly fire behind her with her stolen Defender blaster pistol, not caring whether she hit anyone or not, only intending to distract them, maybe injure them.

The crowd chasing her kept growing, with Trandoshans and Rodians joining the fray. Curses and yells kept being shouted at her, obscenities and threats of death the only dialogue they would have for the time being.

Kyra and the droid had finally managed to put a good bit of distance between themselves and the crowd, and as she followed the droid down another corridor, the droid had stopped, and beeped at her when she ran by to get her attention. Kyra turned around, and saw the little droid spewing oil on the floor, and was trying its hardest with its little manipulator arm to point at her Defender, and then at the spill.

Kyra finally caught on to what the droid was trying to do, and nodded, taking cover near one of the doors, far away from the spill, with the R5 unit doing the same. The distant sound of what must have been twenty thugs charging down a corridor quickly grew closer, and Kyra readied her blaster pistol.

The mob blindly charged into the spill, and the front ones fell over, trampling the ones further back. That put a massive wrench in their plans, and one of the humans that had fell into the pile sat up, and looked at his oil covered hands. "…oh, sithspit." was all he managed to say, before Kyra squeezed the trigger on her pistol, and shot a bolt into the oil spill. There was a bright flash, and an intense heat, and Kyra instinctively shielded her eyes from both.

Kyra didn't know too much about blaster pistols, all she overheard was the other crewmen ragging on her guard for using a Defender, calling it an underpowered piece of trash. She silently hoped that the ones that said that were in the pileup, burning alive right now.

The droid quickly started rolling away, even faster than before, and Kyra followed, trying to put some distance between herself, and the screaming mass of bodies, as well as trying to get away before the smell hit her. The screams slowly grew distant, and the heat died down. With a quick look behind her, Kyra saw they weren't being pursued, and the droid led her into the maintenance section of the corvette.

It wasn't long before he led her to the escape pods, and the droid stopped at the only remaining escape pod, turning around and chirping happily at Kyra. She slowed down, and was about to thank the droid, but before Kyra could do that, there was the sound of a powerful blaster, and three green bolts shot out of a doorway, hitting the droid and causing it to explode in a shower of fire, scrap metal, and sparks.

Kyra just stared, slack-jawed at what just happened, and out from the same doorway came a Weequay, carrying a long, crossbow-like blaster on his shoulder. His scarred, brown, leathery skin made him look more like a well used bipedal sack, rather than a sentient organism, and he had so many braids, Kyra couldn't even count them. He wagged one finger at her. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. You've caused me a lotta trouble today, lady. Yer not worth the price anymore." he said, clearly angry.

Kyra didn't even have time to react as he levelled the blaster at her and fired once.

* * *

Kyra shot up in bed in a cold sweat, hyperventilating. She touched her forehead, checked herself, and then she realized she wasn't on the _Cranky Bantha_ anymore. Kyra breathed a sigh of relief, and then shielded her eyes as R5 shined his light on her, giving a low, long beep of worry. "I'm fine, R5." she said in a soothing tone of voice, and the droid shut the light off, although Kyra could still faintly see the outline of the droid looking at her.

Kyra rubbed her eyes, and then looked at the clock. Just past six in the morning. She yawned, and got out of bed, heading to the kitchen to grab something. Maybe caf? She hadn't had that in a…

…

…Kyra couldn't actually remember the last time she had caf. Nor could she remember anything prior to waking up on the _Cranky Bantha_. She could remember things like her name, what blasters and slugthrowers were, and even a bit of experience using blaster pistols, but her personal life, who she was outside of a name, any sort of specific details were all totally lost to her. It didn't immediately scare her, but as she made her caf, she struggled to remember _anything_. It unnerved her to hell and back.

She put some sugar in her caf, and headed outside to watch the suns rise, R5 in tow.

* * *

Kyra took a sip from her mug, waiting for the suns to come up over the ridge, the wind blowing her hair back. She half-looked behind her, and noticed a line of three grave markers near the six or so vaporators. Brushing her hair out of her face, she went to go take a look, R5 in tow.

Two of the graves looked freshly dug, and the third looked like it had been battered by the elements for a good twenty or so years. The two fresh graves had the words "TRAX" and "DAD" scrawled on them in poorly written Aurebesh script, while the older grave had the word "Bo" on it, and was written much more neatly than the other two.

Kyra suddenly felt a pit develop in her stomach, and she heard the man door to the garage open behind her. She half-turned, and saw Nax stumbling out, carrying something in his hands. He evidently hadn't noticed Kyra, and he headed towards the vaporators, shielding his eyes from the rising suns. He kneeled down near the base of the closest vaporator, and set what he was holding on the ground, which turned out to be a toolbox, and a…protocol droid head?

Kyra cautiously approached him, and R5 followed her, but the mechanical whir of his motivator gave them both away.

"Didn't expect you to be up this early." Nax said, not taking his attention away from the vaporator.

"Couldn't sleep." Kyra said, before taking another sip of her caf.

The protocol droid's eyes quickly lit up. "Guests? We have guests, Master Strag?" it said in the posh, polite tone of voice typical of the 3PO series.

Nax sifted through the toolbox, and went to work on the vaporator. "Yeah." was all he said.

"Greetings! I am Z-3PO, human-cyborg relations!" the droid greeted.

Kyra hesitated briefly. "I'm Kyra, and this is R5-G0. It's a pleasure to meet you, Z-3PO." she said, gesturing towards R5.

R5 gave a happy beep, and then a series of more normal sounding beeps.

"Oh, my! What a friendly little droid you are! I appreciate your concern, but I assure you, I am still capable of performing my duties as programmed by the fine engineers of Cybot Galactica!"

There was another brief, awkward silence as Nax silently worked on the vaporator.

"…If you don't mind my asking," Kyra started, visibly questioning if she should even ask. "I saw some graves by the door." she finished, and Nax stopped working, but didn't turn to face her. "How did they die?"

"You have no right asking me that." Nax suddenly snapped at her.

"I… you're right. I'm sorry." she apologized, and R5 gave a long, sad beep.

Nax sighed, and put his tools back in the box. "No need, I shouldn't have snapped at you." he said as he picked up both the toolbox and Z-3PO's head. "…Do you really want to know?"

Kyra slowly nodded once. "…If you're comfortable with telling me."

Nax gestured to the older grave. "That was mom. She died when my brother and I were born. Never knew her, don't really mind that she wasn't around." he said, and then gestured to the newer graves. "As for these two, last month, some guys came around every few days and tried to buy two of our vaporators. Dad kept refusing them, said the price wasn't good enough, and eventually they stopped coming around. We thought they either gave up or got their vaporators from some other moisture farmer."

Kyra remained silent.

"We thought wrong. About a week after they stopped coming, my brother and I were sitting in the living room waiting for dad and Z-3PO to come back inside, since a dust storm was coming. We heard shouting, and then blaster fire. We grabbed our guns and ran outside, and there must have been ten guys with two transport speeders. They were all well armed and were probably organized, maybe insurgents, maybe mercenaries. Anyways, we started shooting, they shot back. Don't think we killed anyone, but we drove them off, though they took two of our vaporators. I got scraped by a bolt, but Trax got shot in the chest several times."

Nax opened the man door. "Z-3PO's body was blasted apart, dad was dead when I got to him, and Trax died in my arms. Buried them both the next day." Nax said, setting the toolbox on the floor.

"…I'm sorry." Kyra said, totally at a loss for words.

Nax half turned to her. "…Why? You didn't know them."

Kyra shrugged. "I was just offering my condolences."

Nax set Z-3PO's head on the workbench in the garage. "I'm not all boo-hoo about it. I was going to leave eventually, now I just have more reason to. There's nothing left for me here." he cracked his knuckles and then went downstairs. "I'll make something to eat, and then we'll head out."

* * *

Nax pulled the landspeeder up near Kerner Plaza and parked it. R5 rolled off, and both Kyra and Nax got out. Kyra was wearing a duster similar to Nax's, and she had a face wrap with goggles to hide her features. Hidden inside her duster was Trax's DL-44, tucked away in the holster. Nax had given her a brief rundown on how to use it, and stressed the importance of conserving ammo for it.

Nax had his own weapon shouldered, a pump action shotgun where the pump was sideways, with a foregrip jutting out. Nax also had a bandolier of several shells for the shotgun strapped to his chest. It was still early in the morning, and although there were some people in the streets, it wasn't necessarily packed, with the only standouts being a two-man Stormtrooper patrol on the street corner.

"Where are we going?" Kyra asked, although her voice was muffled through the face wrap.

"Visiting a friend of mine. He's a blaster merchant, probably knows our target, or at least, did business with him at some point."

"…How do you figure that?"

Nax rolled the question around in his head for a bit. "My friend doesn't exactly deal in 'legal' blasters. He's a freelancer, the kind that prefer to dance around Imperial regulations. Benefits of being on Tatooine, I guess. The work on the guy's blaster is definitely my buddy's." Nax said, shrugging. "He's actually how I got this shotgun. That DL-44 of yours is his work, too."

Kyra cocked her head. "Really?"

"Mhm. Both the scope and the scope mount are gone, and the internals were reworked to accommodate the trigger being moved closer to the grip. Trax liked the '44, but hated the unnecessary weight, so I called in a favor, and a week later, Trax comes home with his new custom '44, giddy as hell." Nax explained as they walked into the nearby bazaar.

There were a few merchants with their shops open, and way in the back of the bazaar was Nax's friend with his back turned. The trio walked up to his rather simple looking stand, and Nax tapped him on the shoulder. "Excuse me," he said, and the man turned around. He was half a head shorter than Nax, had short brown hair and strong facial features. Unlike Nax, he lacked facial hair, and was far more tan. "I'd like to call in a debt owed to the Strag family for saving the Novar homestead from a Tusken raiding party around, I dunno, a year ago?"

The man studied him briefly, and then his brown eyes widened. "Nax! It's been too long!" he said happily, pulling Nax into a bear hug. After nearly crushing Nax, he let go from the hug, although maintained an incredibly strong grip on his arms. "How've ya been?!" he said, his voice filled with glee, shaking Nax.

"Been better, Thel."

Thel leaned to the side, and noticed Kyra. "Who's your friend?"

"She's my partner, we-"

" _She_?" Thel suddenly interrupted. "You don't mean to tell me you've suddenly gotten yourself a _you know what_ , Nax." he teased, elbowing his friend.

"What? No, it's a temporary arrangement. She helps me with bounties to get credits for a ship, I get her off-world." Nax replied, totally unphased by his friend's teasing. "Speaking of bounties," Nax said as he pulled out his datapad and showed Thel its contents. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about this Rodian, would you?"

Thel's expression suddenly changed from jovial, to totally serious. "No." he said, like he wasn't just laughing and joking with his friend seconds ago.

Nax rolled his eyes. "I know your work, Thel. It's all over his blaster. The stock's definitely your work, the trigger's custom, the grip's done exactly how you do all grips. You even re-did the front and rear sight posts like I've seen you do to some E-11s. I can even see your little calling card near the handguard. It's your work." he said, revealing just how much he knew about his friend's craftsmanship.

Thel sighed, and rubbed his temples. "Nax, you know I keep customer details confidential. We've been over this."

Nax looked thoughtful for a minute. "Trax is dead." he said, and the significance of this was lost on Kyra.

Thel's expression, however, totally shifted. "What?" he asked.

"Trax is-"

"I heard you the first time, Nax."

"He never called in on that favor you promised him. Do this for me, and I'll consider that debt paid."

Thel was incredibly hesitant, understandably so. If the target had found out it was him that had leaked his location to the pair, he'd be dead within the hour. Eventually, Thel sighed and lowered his head. "Alright, fine. The guy you're after plays Pazaak pretty much all day, in a back alley near the Lucky Despot. The games are apparently low stakes, so don't expect too much extra loot. He's also got two bodyguards who're packing, probably at the doors." he said, and then looked Nax in the eye. "Just this once, Nax."

Nax thanked his friend, and the trio departed. On their way back to the speeder, Nax turned to Kyra. "Lesson one of bounty hunting: form a network of contacts. You're more likely to find out a target's whereabouts from dealers like my friend Thel than any random pedestrian."

Kyra looked back at him. "I thought bounty hunting was just pointing and shooting?" she asked, totally serious.

Nax snickered at the ridiculousness of that question. "That's more like a quarter of the work. The rest of it is investigating, following up on leads, making use of contacts and such. It's not nearly as easy as the holovids make it look."

They arrived at the speeder, and Nax hoisted R5 onto the back of the speeder, and the pair hopped in. "What made you think he'd pay the debt back?" Kyra asked, curious.

Nax turned the speeder on, and started driving it towards the Lucky Despot. "Thel's shiftier than bantha droppings, but if he makes a promise or says he owes you one, he means it. Whole reason he owed us favors in the first place was because Trax and I helped fend off a Tusken raiding party that was attacking their family homestead. I used my favor on landing Trax that '44 you have in your holster, and Trax never used his before he died."

"But why use a favor like that on something like this?" Kyra asked as they turned a corner, the massive hulk of the Lucky Despot coming into view.

"Personal reasons." Nax said simply, and at that, Kyra chose to drop the subject entirely. The rest of the trip was silent, and after a while, Nax pulled over, not too far from the entrance of the Lucky Despot. Nax powered down the speeder, and all three of them got out. Not too far from where the speeder was parked was a back alley. It had all the signs of being used for backroom card games; suspicious looking door guards, proximity to a known crime lord, which in this case was Lady Valarian, the works. Nax peeked around the corner, and there didn't seem to be anyone nearby aside from two heavily armed guards; a male Zabrak, and a female Weequay. Both of them were carrying long blasters, possibly shotguns, and wore what looked like medium armor. The Zabrak had an ACH-14 helmet loosely strapped to his head, while the Weequay wore some sort of face mask that mostly concealed her features. Nax turned back to look at Kyra and R5.

"Set your '44 to stun." Nax told her, and Kyra did so, flicking the switch on the barrel. "R5, go cause a distraction. Get them away from the door or knock them out. Your choice." he said, and the droid used its manipulator arm to give a mock salute, rolling off into the peripheral vision of the guards. Nax peeked around the corner again to keep an eye on the situation.

Both of the guards tracked R5 cautiously, although they didn't level their weapons at him. "Git." the Weequay commanded, pointing off into the distance. R5 beeped incessantly, pointing at something else with his manipulator arm. "I said git!" the Weequay yelled, kicking R5, who gave the droid equivalent of a yelp. R5 evidently gave up, and suddenly, a small electrical storm shot out of his front chassis, stunning the two guards and knocking them out cold. R5 turned around and gave a happy series of beeps, satisfied with himself. Kyra and Nax both dashed over to the bodies, looking for some place to store them from sight. Nax spotted a nearby dumpster, and grabbed the Zabrak, while Kyra grabbed the Weequay, and they both dragged them over, disarmed them of their weapons, and then tossed the bodies in the dumpster.

Nax pointed to the door and unholstered his shotgun. "Stack up, get ready to breach." he said, and Kyra looked at him, confused. Nax just sighed, and rubbed his forehead. "Take one side of the door, I'll take the other. Come in after me, and check your aim. I'd rather not get stunned accidentally." Kyra nodded in understanding, and leaned up against the wall opposite to Nax, while he leaned in closer, careful to not trip the automatic door system. He could hear idle chatter coming from behind the door, then laughter, and then a moment of silence, followed by yelling.

The yelling grew louder, and then Nax realized that it wasn't friendly yelling. They were _angry_ , and if Pazaak was anything like the few Sabacc games he had seen, the shooting would start soon. Nax charged in without warning, and Kyra was temporarily stunned, but she followed nonetheless.

Inside, there were four, make that five humanoids surrounding a square table. Two were seated, staring at each other, one a human and the other, a Rodian. Both of them had blasters drawn. Two of the humanoids, a male Twi'lek and a female Mirialan, were pointing their blasters at the human and the Rodian, respectively. The fifth, another human who was clearly nervous, was trying to point his blaster at everyone, but kept switching targets, unable to focus on one specific person. Kyra and Nax both stared at the ensuing standoff, and everyone turned to look at the intruders.

Kyra was the first to make a move, if "make a move" meant panic, accidentally fire a stun blast and hit the Rodian, lose control of the weapon, and then shoot _herself_ with a stun blast and knock herself out.

Before Kyra hit the dirt, everyone started shooting at everyone. A few blaster shots were sent into the doorway, but Nax grabbed Kyra and dragged her behind the wall and into cover. Nax flicked the safety off on his shotgun, poked out of cover after fumbling with the awkward grips on his shotgun briefly, and fired a shot off, eviscerating the upper torso of the Twi'lek, and splattering violet colored blood onto the Mirialan and the ceiling. Nax retreated back to safety before they could retaliate, racked another shell into the chamber, and then poked around, just in time to see the Mirialan and the seated human fall dead, scorch marks replacing most of their facial features.

Time seemed to slow down as Nax exposed more of his body to get a bead on the guy who couldn't pick a target. Both of them had their weapons ready to fire, and Nax managed to shoot first. On impact, the man stumbled back, whiffing two shots from his DH-17, one going wide, and the other nearly missing Nax's face, hitting the wall behind him. He racked the shotgun again, and the man tried to raise his blaster, but Nax shot again, and he hit the floor with a heavy _thud_.

Nax quickly scanned the room for further hostiles, before deeming it clear, racking another shell, the plasteel hull clattering against the hard floor. Keeping one hand on the pistol grip, he checked the Rodian's pulse.

Still breathing. Lucky he didn't get nicked by a stray bolt in the crossfire

Nax leaned in close, and noticed the dark, almost leathery green skin of the Rodian, as well as a cut antenna, and multiple scars along the snout. He was wearing a jacket that had some sort of skull on the back of it, with the jacket looking like it was made from lizard skin. Strapped around his body was a leather holster, and a DC-15S carbine, exactly the same as in the datapad.

Nax took the holster and blaster off of the Rodian, and without any hesitation, he pulled out a pair of stuncuffs, and slapped them around the Rodian's wrists, before pulling out a second pair, and shackling him at the knees. He then noticed that the Twi'lek had a large bag strapped around his body, large enough to fit several weapons. Nax moved over, grabbed the partially wet bag from the Twi'lek's still warm corpse, and began looting the bodies, taking credits, datapads, Pazaak cards, and blasters alike, tossing them all into the bag with reckless abandon. Any profit was good profit as far as he was concerned.

When he was done, he set the bag on the floor, and grabbed the Rodian, tossing him over his shoulder, before heading outside to find R5 patiently waiting for Kyra and Nax to come out. Nax quietly motioned for R5 to follow him, which he did. Nax tossed the target onto the back of the speeder. "Guard him while I grab Kyra and our loot. Feel free to zap any Jawas that come near. Or anyone that tries to take the bounty." Nax ordered, and R5 gave a salute with his manipulator arm, chirping happily.

Nax went back inside and picked Kyra up, throwing her over his shoulder, but not before picking up Trax's '44, setting it inside Kyra's holster. He carried her back to the speeder, and gently set her down in the seat, with R5 staring at her, and then back at Nax, before resuming his little patrol detail. Nax went back in for a final time, grabbed the bag, any weapons he had missed, and took them back to the speeder, setting them all in front of Kyra's feet, picking R5 up and setting him on the speeder, and then getting in himself, turning it on. The repulsorlifts and turbines roared to life, and he slowly eased his way onto the street, careful not to let the target fall off. The Imperial Garrison wasn't too far, and he didn't want to try and wake Kyra, since the stun blast from the '44 should be wearing off shortly.

Or now, as evidenced by Kyra's rumblings. She slowly sat up in her seat and rubbed her head, groaning. "…How long was I out?" she asked groggily, holding her face in her right hand through her mask.

"About ten minutes or so? We got the target, and some stuff we can sell." Nax replied, and Kyra groaned again. "Something wrong?" he asked, concerned.

"I feel like my insides've been totally scrambled." Kyra complained. "Hey, can we slow down a bit?"

Nax lowered the throttle. "Thanks." Kyra said, holding her stomach, obviously not feeling too well.

The remainder of the trip was silent, until they pulled up on the Garrison. Nax hopped out, leaving the speeder on idle, with the loot, Kyra, and R5 inside. Nax, however, pulled the now conscious and currently _very_ angry Rodian off of the speeder. He was screaming what were presumably curses and threats of death in Rodese, but Nax paid him no mind. The Stormtroopers guarding the garrison though were probably just snickering behind their helmets. "Sit tight." Nax told Kyra, before walking into the garrison.

"…Not like there's much else I can do." Kyra grumbled, letting her head fully collapse into her hand.

* * *

The guards let him through, and brought him directly to Mazz Gaffi, the Rodian still shouldered and cuffed. Gaffi was the local Imperial Garrison commander, and was, for all intents and purposes, the de-facto commander of Imperial forces, at least in Mos Eisley. He was by no means young looking, but he wasn't exactly old either.

Nax knew very little about him, but if the drunken banter of Stormtroopers was to be believed, he was a veteran of the Clone Wars, making him, at best, in his late thirties to early forties. He was evidently a shrewd tactician, although Nax, nor the majority of the Stormtroopers posted in Mos Eisley, actually saw him do anything really worthy outside of what basically amounted to paper pushing. Then again, he was smart enough to be able to utilize a poor situation and turn it into a great boon, seeing as how he was authorizing the wealth of independent contractors and bounty hunters in the area, such as Nax, to be able to bounty hunt for the Empire on worlds that are near the border of their sphere of influence. They could help restore order to the Empire, _and_ they could make some extra credits on the side. It's a win-win for everyone that actually had some longevity in the galaxy.

"Where do I set him?" Nax asked, and Gaffi cleared a nearby table, staring expectantly at Nax, who then set the Rodian on the table. He tried to squirm away, but Gaffi simply smacked him, and then leaned over to stare at the captive.

"My, my, my… if it isn't Vark Rurmiid," he taunted, and the Rodian's eyes widened in fear. Gaffi grabbed the Rodian by his chin, and forced him to look at the officer. "You've been quite the thorn in our sides as of late, you insufferable pile of excrement. I will see an end to that, _personally_ , but first…" he turned to Nax. "How did you find him?" Gaffi inquired.

Nax remained straight faced. "I was playing Pazaak, and he just walked in on my game. Knew who he was from the bounty you posted, so I dropped the game, zapped him, and brought him here. Kinda hard to forget a face with a ten thousand credit bounty on it."

Gaffi raised an eyebrow. "Just like that? No fight?"

Nax shrugged. "I mean, zapping him did cause a bit of a firefight, but he didn't get hit as far as I can tell."

Gaffi didn't show it, but he was laughing on the inside. He smirked down at the Rodian. "Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The 'Oh-So-Valiant' Vark Rurmiid, taken without any resistance. Pathetic." he derided, before fully devoting his attention to Nax, clearing his throat. "Now, as for you, I'm authorizing the full payment of ten thousand and five hundred standard Imperial credits, provided that you have an IPKC, as well as a bonus of two thousand credits for bringing Vark in alive." he said smugly, holding out his hand. "Your datapad?"

Nax fished around in his duster and produced the datapad with his IPKC stored on it, which Gaffi took. "Right this way."

* * *

The heat of Tatooine's twin suns was finally getting to Kyra. She didn't exactly feel fine to begin with, actually. She'd embarrassed herself, nearly got herself killed, nearly cost them the bounty, and probably almost got Nax killed. Her stomach pains and headache from accidentally stunning herself only compounded her problem, and all she could do was sit and wait, holding her head.

Imperial paperwork would be the death of her, possibly literally.

Kyra had almost drifted off to sleep, lulled by the sound of the turbines as if they were white noise. The only thing preventing her was a loud group that had suddenly appeared behind her, walking up the street.

"…sssoo thisss guy, he's in the dirt, begging for hisss life, right?" a Trandoshan hissed.

"Yeah?"

"The bounty ssaid dead or alive, so I just looked him in the eye, grinned, and then I ssslagged that ssucker. You ssshould've seen that girl's face!"

Kyra heard someone else, a man, sigh. "Can we stop screwing around and get back to work? The boss'll have our heads if we get back to the ship without any leads." he said, clearly frustrated. Despite his frustration, he sounded like he had a level head on for their situation, whatever it was.

"Shut it, you coward." a third, feminine voice said as they passed by the speeder. Her voice sounded rough and gravelley, and she was probably ugly to boot.

"Ssstop." the Trandoshan suddenly hissed next to Kyra. She heard him sniff the air, and then she heard him sniffing closer to her, practically in her ear. "Thiss one smellsss… familiar." he coldly said, and Kyra felt a shiver go down her spin.

"How familiar?" the woman asked, and the Trandoshan sniffed again.

"…Very." he replied.

Kyra heard the telltale sounds of an approaching Stormtrooper patrol, and silently hoped either they, or Nax, would drive these people away. "You three," one of the Stormtroopers said through the helmet vocoder. "State your business."

Kyra opened her eyes, and saw a five man patrol of Stormtroopers, all armed with longblasters, with the one that Kyra assumed was the commanding officer having orange pauldrons on top of his standard armor. The three that she was afraid of all seemed to be unarmed, the woman was a particularly ugly Weequay, and the man was a scrawny looking human.

"State your business." the officer repeated, and there was a tense silence.

"Just reclaiming our property!" the Trandoshan suddenly said, and tried to grab Kyra. As soon as he touched her, a blaster bolt whizzed by, and hit the Trandoshan directly in the head, dropping him dead. The Weequay and the human fled, and the Stormtroopers surrounded the body.

"Clear." the officer stated, before turning to Kyra. "Sorry about that, ma'am. Carry on." he apologized, before muttering "fraggin' lizards" under his breath, the vocoder heavily distorting it and nearly rendering it inaudible.

Kyra wasn't about to try resting again, but Nax suddenly hopped in, throwing whatever she had planned out the window. "The hell'd I miss?" he asked, looking over to her.

Kyra hesitated again. "Nothing important."

The turbines finally roared to life after sitting on idle for what felt like an eternity, and Nax began to drive the speeder back towards the bazaar, where Thel was. "Got twelve thousand credits from that Rodian."

Kyra half-turned her head. "I thought it was ten thousand?"

"Got a bonus of two thousand for bringing him in alive."

Kyra's eyes widened a bit. "That much for one target? If all bounties are like that, we'll be outta here in no time!" she said, her spirits suddenly lifted.

"And that's where I have to crush you. Bounties that high are exceptionally, and I mean _exceptionally_ rare. Most jobs sit around the thousand credit range, maybe two thousand if you're lucky. The majority of what I make is from resold gear and pilfered bank accounts, hence, the bag."

"…We going to Thel?"

"Mhm."

"…Can we not? I'm still not feeling too great."

Nax internally debated overturning her request, but decided against it. "Sure." he said, before immediately changing course from the bazaar, to the general direction the house was in. He could always sell the weapons and drain the bank accounts later, anyways.

* * *

By the time Nax had finished work on his landspeeder, the suns were setting. He had added some small durasteel guards to prevent R5 and any captives from falling off. R5 had even pitched in a little, using his built-in fusion cutter to slice up chunks of scrap metal lying around the garage. The additional weight and increased air resistance probably wouldn't play nice with the repulsorlifts, but hey, it worked.

Nax lifted up his welding mask, and saw Kyra come in wearing sleeping ropes. She looked considerably better than when they had first got home, but her hair was a mess, and something was clearly on her mind, so Nax waved her over. "Something wrong?" he asked.

Kyra nodded. "A lot of things are wrong." she said, seemingly staring through Nax. "When you left the garrison, you saw the dead Trandoshan, right?"

Nax nodded, and Kyra took a deep breath. "He was…" she gulped, "…one of my captors. I was a slave, and he was a slaver."

Nax suddenly understood why she wanted off-world. "But he's dead, so what's the issue?"

"His two colleagues got away, and he said something about how I "smelled familiar" before trying to grab me."

Sithspit.

"So, not only do the slavers I escaped from know that I'm still alive, they _also_ know what I wear and the general area I'm in." Kyra said dejectedly.

"…What else was the matter?" Nax asked. He was already helping her off-world, couldn't hurt to help her feel better about her situation.

Kyra sighed. "You saw what happened when we raided the Pazaak game. I panicked and stunned myself. The only reason I'm alive is because of you. I almost cost you that entire bounty because of my incompetence. We've only known and worked together for about a day, but I already feel like I'm a huge liability to you. I can't shoot someone, and you're lucky I didn't shoot _you_." her expression soured, and she hid her face. "I'd rather not drag someone I barely know into my own problems, or just kill someone because of my incompetence."

Nax stood up and grabbed her hand, surprising her and causing Kyra to yelp. He then dragged her over to the man-door, and grabbed the DH-17 from the bag. Nax pulled her outside, and offered her the pistol. "I'm having none of that defeatist garbage, especially not from my bounty hunting partner. Take this." Nax commanded, and Kyra was still surprised, so she obeyed, displaying trigger discipline without Nax even needing to bring it up.

"Face the ridge."

Kyra turned to face the ridge where the moons were just now coming up.

"Put both hands on the grip, and point the blaster at the ridge."

Kyra did exactly that, and Nax put both hands on her shoulders. "Now, spread your legs out so that you're stable and not moving, and lean forward. Aim down the scope, keep your grip on the blaster strong. Then I want you to pull the trigger. Don't jerk it."

Kyra waited a bit to position herself, and then she fired a shot, the red bolt lighting up the surrounding desert, before impacting the sand. She jolted a bit, but otherwise held on tight.

Nax continued training her well into the night. After all, a chain was only as strong as its weakest link, and Nax intended to reinforce that weak link until it was practically beskar.

* * *

Allo Lostur sat in his captain's chair on the bridge of the _Cranky Bantha_ , a retrofitted CR90, enjoying some Juri juice one of his crew had brought up from Mos Eisley. He swirled the drink around for a bit, before taking a sip. His fourth ground crew was late for their regular check-in. The _Cranky Bantha_ had a bit of a… slave revolt recently. Most of the revolting slaves were reshackled and appropriately punished, but one managed to escape. His most prized and valuable possession, specifically, was gone.

When he found out she had not only killed twenty of his best men, but stolen an astromech and seemingly disappeared, he was _**beyond**_ furious, and immediately ordered ground teams to secure her.

As he was about to take another sip, his commlink buzzed in his ear, and he pressed down on it. _"You're late."_ he growled.

…

"No, I don't care about your excuses. I want _results_ , and unless you have them, you can come back up here so I can _cut your damn heads off_ _ **myself.**_ " he threatened through gritted teeth.

…

…

"He _what?"_

…

"I don't care that he's dead. _Where. Is. She?"_

…

Lostur threw the glass down, shattering it, and spilling the remainder of his drink on the floor. " _YOU FOUND MY MOST PRIZED POSESSION AND_ _ **RAN AWAY FROM HER?!**_ " he suddenly roared. "I DON'T GIVE A MYNOCK'S _**ASS**_ THAT YOU WERE SURROUNDED BY BUCKETHEADS, WHEN I GIVE YOU ORDERS, _**YOU DO THEM!**_ " he screamed with unbridled fury. If he didn't have everyone's attention on the bridge before, he did now.

The person on the other end of the commlink apologized, and quickly ended the conversation. Lostur held his head in his hands and groaned. "I'm surrounded by incompetent lobotomites." he turned to his Twi'lek slave. "Remind me to kill those boltheads when they come back on board."

* * *

 **THAT'S CHAPTER 1**

 **Just an FYI, this is a lot more emblematic of what I wanted Grimm Retreat's opening chapter to be, but didn't end up being because my writing wasn't up to snuff. That'll actually probably be a running theme for Pulsar Company as we go along.**

 **Inevitable Q &A stuff:**

 **-Q: Why do people say Hell? Isn't that an 'us' thing?**

 **-A: Hell exists in Corellian mythology. It's another name for the Sith portion of the netherworld, which is alternatively known as Chaos.**

 **-Q: Regular shotgun shells?** _ **Really?**_

 **-A: I see nothing wrong with using regular shotgun shells, especially since there's nothing that suggests scatterguns use something else, particularly since Nax's shotgun is a slugthrower. If it were the ACP Array Gun from RepCom (which it isn't), I'd have referred to them as cartridges, which the official wiki does. Speaking of Nax's shotgun, it's the Scattergun/Vanguard from 2015/2017 Battlefront, that fucking wacky sideways SPAS-12, you know the one. I briefly considered making them the DP shotguns from Battlefront 2005 but nah lmao.**

 **-Q: What'll happen to Grimm Retreat?**

 **-A: Fffffucked if I know. I'm burned out on writing for RWBY right now.**

 **That said, read and review please! This is super fucking important considering this is something new I'm trying out.**

' **Till next time.**

 **-Tweak**


	2. Tracking

**So, in my infinite fucking wisdom, I posted this as an M-rated story .**

 **I got fuck all for views. This got something like 20 when I woke up the next morning, while Grimm Retreat when I posted it had something like three hundred? I genuinely forget but it was shittons more than this.**

 **Fuck. I'm such a goddamn idiot.**

* * *

Nax found himself in the living room, directly across from Trax. His face was blurry and nearly unrecognizable, but he instinctively knew it was Trax.

He didn't even need to think to know he was dreaming, so he just sat back in the chair, and waited for the shooting to start. Sure enough, it did, and he found himself involuntarily running up the stairs, shotgun in hand, like he was on a maglev rail. He chased after Trax and ran outside, and they both immediately started shooting.

The group shot back, but Trax wasn't shot instantly like he was in reality, and they didn't immediately run off. Instead, they whiffed their shots, and then the speeders came around with the vaporators on back, one circling the pair clockwise, and the other, counter-clockwise. As the first speeder came close, he racked another shell, took aim, and fired. Time stopped, and he got a good look at the guy hanging off the side in the muzzle flash.

It was the Trandoshan, the one from the garrison. He gave Nax a savage, evil grin, and then time returned to normal. The pellets from the shotgun seemingly phased through him, and the speeder passed behind Nax. He then heard Kyra scream, and turned to see them making away with Kyra, and Trax was nowhere to be seen.

A speeder bike appeared right next to Nax, engine on idle. He hopped on, and gunned it towards the escaping speeders, the engine roaring with ferocious intensity. Nax managed to get on the tail of the rear speeder, and through the moonlight of Tatooine's three moons, he could see Kyra being held by the Trandoshan, dangling off the side of the speeder. Nax got close, close enough to the point that he was practically in their turbines, and leaned to the side Kyra was dangling off, arm outstretched.

"..et go o..e, you bas…!" was all Nax could hear Kyra yell over the screaming of the turbines. He then saw her shadow reach back, and then sucker punch the Trandoshan in the face. He recoiled briefly, and then hissed at her, earning a blaster bolt to his face for the trouble. Both the Trandoshan and Kyra tumbled out and onto the sand. Nax managed to grab her mid tumble, and she shook the dead Trandoshan's grip, using the free weight to sling herself onto the speeder. She wrapped her left arm around Nax's torso, and then aimed the DL-44 at the engine of the rear landspeeder. The muzzle began to glow a bright red, and Nax felt the air start to heat up.

Kyra's arm jerked upwards as a large bolt shot out of the barrel and directly hit the landspeeder's turbines, causing an explosion. The landspeeder veered and swerved from side to side, and then crashed directly in front of the speeder bike.

* * *

Nax's eyes shot open, but he didn't jump up. He just calmly got out of bed like every other day.

Having to rewatch your family die almost every single night didn't make for the most pleasant experience, but Kyra not only replacing Trax, but her living through the dream threw Nax for a pretty big loop.

As he walked out, he saw Kyra poke her head around the corner. "Hey, Nax!" she beamed, evidently in brighter spirits after Nax taught her what he knew about handling a blaster last night. "Made you some eggs for breakfast."

"Thanks."

She closed her eyes and smiled. "Not a problem! It's my way of saying thanks!" she happily said, before opening her eyes, and her expression changed to a more neutral one. "By the way, I had a really weird dream last night."

Nax raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. "Why? What made it weird?" he asked, turning the corner with Kyra.

"Well, you were there, and there was someone else I didn't recognize. Both of you were in the living room, and I apparently wasn't visible to you two. Nothing I did caught your attention, and then the next thing I know, I'm outside with the other guy in a firefight, and then I get grabbed by that Trandoshan that the patrol shot, the one up at the garrison," she said, taking Nax to the kitchen table.

"And then I show up on a speederbike, you punch him and shoot him, I grab you after you fall off, and then you shoot the engines of the speeder out?" Nax interrupted.

Kyra cocked her head sideways, dumbfounded. "How did you-?"

"Had the same dream." Nax replied nonchalantly, and Kyra scratched her head in confusion as Nax went to go eat.

* * *

"Is this some sort of joke?" Thel asked, inspecting the custom DC-15S. On his table was a disassembled DP-23 shotgun, the DH-17, a DLT-19, an older DC-17 pistol, an SE-14, a Defender, and an ELG-3A.

"Does it look like one?" Nax replied, arms crossed.

Thel's jaw slacked and he stared at Nax, dumbfounded at his rationale. "You stun one of my customers, arrest them, take their weapon that I _personally_ made for them and intend on selling it _back to me_?!"

"…Yes?" Nax asked, not sure why he needed to clarify his intentions, or justify his position, for that matter.

Thel put his face in both of his hands and sighed. "…Nax, do you have any idea how slagbrained you sound right now?"

Nax rolled his eyes. "Your stock seems to think it's a great idea." he said, gesturing to the otherwise empty tables and racks.

Thel briefly looked around and sighed again. "…How much did you want for these again?"

"Three thousand credits for all of them."

"Twenty two hundred for everything except for the Defender and Elgee. Holdout blasters are hard to sell." He offered, and then noticed Nax considering his options. "Take it or leave it."

Nax shrugged. "Deal." he responded, and Thel fished some credits out of his pocket, handing them over to Nax. In response, he set the Elgee and the Defender back in the bag, and took the credits.

Nax had already turned to leave with Kyra, when they were approached by a short, portly man, obviously someone who hasn't been in Mos Eisley for more than ten seconds. He was balding, and had a small moustache under his nose, and he had some sort of fancy suit on. He was also evidently unarmed. This guy was either incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid. "Excuse me, friend, you wouldn't happen to be a mercenary for hire, would you?" he asked. His voice wasn't necessarily horrible to listen to, but his accent was certainly more posh and regal. Not exactly the kind of person you would expect to be on a backwater like Tatooine willingly. He suddenly stood up straight. "Gah, where are my manners?" he saluted. "I am Lorn Ulgo, of House Ulgo."

Nax raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, I'm a mercenary, but… House Ulgo?" he inquired, unfamiliar with the name.

Lorn sighed and shook his head. "I'm not surprised you haven't heard of us." he cleared his throat. "House Ulgo is, or rather, _was_ one of the Great Houses of Alderaan. We've fallen on hard times as of late, but I assure you that our core values are sti-"

Nax interrupted him, putting his right hand on his hip. "Not to be rude, but I don't really care about your noble house or whatever it is, I was just asking what it was. Now, did you have a job, or no?"

Lorn was briefly stunned, blinked a few times, and then regained his composure. "Right! My apologies. As I was saying, House Ulgo isn't doing well. I was sent out to Tatooine by my superiors to handle a shipment of weapons we were supposed to receive." he then scratched the back of his head, nervous. "And, well, my bodyguards seem to have disappeared, and our deal is supposed to happen in around… half an hour?" he said.

"…I see. How much is the pay?"

"Provided my deal goes smoothly? Three thousand credits. If it doesn't, I'll up it to forty five hundred as a danger bonus."

Nax looked at Kyra. "Shouldn't be too hard. You in?"

Kyra nodded, opting to remain silent just in case one of the slavers was nearby and heard her.

"Excellent! Now, you wouldn't happen to have a speeder, would you?"

Nax motioned for Kyra and Lorn to follow him. "Yeah, this way." he said, heading around the corner where the speeder was.

Kyra got in the back right next to R5, positioning herself against the newly installed makeshift guardrails, while Lorn took her place in the passenger seat. She was a bit unprepared for when the speeder took off, and covered her ears because of how close she was to the turbines.

Nax half-looked at Lorn, keeping one eye on the street and another on Lorn. "Where to?"

"Docking bay ninety-four is where the meeting place is supposed to take place. They'll be offloading the shipment from a YT series freighter." Lorn stated, pointing in the general direction of docking bay 94.

"There's a lot of YT series freighters out there. Do you know the specific model?"

Lorn rolled that around in his head for a bit. "I don't believe I was told, just that it was a YT series."

Awesome.

"Anything specific you need us to do?" Nax asked, hoping to pry any more details from Lorn.

"I'll just need you two to flank me. This should be a very clean cut-job compared to what you're used to."

That was reassuring. Maybe.

Nax shrugged and turned his attention back to the streets.

"This is a weapons shipment, right?" Kyra asked, sounding confused.

Lorn looked back at her. "Yes, that it is."

Kyra cocked her head to the side. "…I thought Alderaanians avoided war? What does an Alderaanian house need with a weapons shipment?"

Lorn smiled and laughed. "Oh, my dear, House Ulgo is nothing like the other Great Houses. While they've grown passive, even softer over the years, House Ulgo hasn't changed since the days of the Mandalorian Wars. We still take pride in military service, with many of our members serving in the Stormtrooper Corps and the Imperial Navy, many of them with distinction. The Lants of today are scarcely any different from the Trasks of centuries ago. I myself am a veteran of the Clone Wars, as I served on the _Endurance_ prior to its destruction." he explained, staring off into space, before snapping back to reality. "Regardless, we've managed to secure a deal with the Imperial military that allows us to train our members for a year, before shipping them out for specialized training." he explained with a surprising amount of up-frontedness for what one would assume to be highly secretive information.

"That said, Imperial Bureaucracy being what it is, sometimes we have to make do with… 'unofficial' means of acquiring training equipment. In those very rare cases, members like myself are sent out to make a transaction with the less friendly types in this galaxy of ours." he continued, revealing even more of what were presumably incredibly well guarded secrets with surprising willingness.

Kyra just leaned her head on R5, and the astromech cooed in response.

* * *

"This is the place." Lorn said, and Nax pulled up near the stairs. All three of them got out, barring R5, who stayed behind. The astromech complained, but Nax ignored him, following Lorn up the stairs, forming a V formation with Kyra to his right.

They entered the docking bay, and passed through the entry alcove. The big hangar door that was usually in the Mos Eisley docking bays was already open, and in the center was a YT-2400 freighter painted a deep crimson, with gunmetal grey trimming. The starboard command pod had the separated windows replaced with one clear window to increase visibility, and a lot of the hull plating between the command pod and the rest of the ship seemed to have been stripped away. The main portion of the ship also had more than a few examples of what could be considered nose art, mostly of Twi'lek and Mirialan slave girls, but what also looked like a few kill tallies. On the underside of the hull, there were various symbols that Nax recognized as the symbols of the long since dead Confederacy of Independent Systems and the defunct Galactic Republic. His attention was diverted from the hull to the loading ramp, which began to open up, and a man wearing a brown leather jacket and long blue pants with short, wavy brown hair came down.

"You're late." he chastised, his voice carrying a certain amount of swagger in it. Probably a smuggler.

Lorn shook his head. "Yes, yes, I'm aware. There was a… complication."

"That complication better not involve the Empire and you snitching." he snarled.

Lorn waved his hand in a dismissive fashion. "No, nothing like that." he replied, giving a warm smile to try and reassure him.

The man rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Do you have our credits?"

"Yes, twenty five thousand, as discussed previously."

The probable smuggler pressed down on the commlink on his arm. "Bring out the merchandise." he spoke into it, and shortly after, four human men came down with repulsorsleds carrying multiple crates each, probably of weapons. They set the crates in front of the trio.

"Do you mind if I examine the weapons?" Lorn asked. The smuggler looked back at his crew, and then made a dismissive hand gesture, which Lorn took as "go ahead," so he popped the top of one of the crates off. He pulled out an E-11, and held it, examining it, looking over every single detail on the weapon. He briefly looked over the other weapons in the case, and, evidently satisfied, set the E-11 back inside, popping the top back on.

Lorn fished through his suit, and pulled out a credit stick. The captain reached out to grab it, but before he took it, one of his crewmates elbowed him. "Ey, boss, innat that one slave girl that the big boss wants?" he said through a heavily accented voice, pointing at Kyra. "She's got alla de same clothes that wotserface told em she had."

Nax and Kyra both tensed up, keeping their weapons in quick reach. They had a real bad feeling about this, and could smell trouble coming. Things were about to get ugly.

The smuggler looked Kyra over, and then got closer to Lorn. "Tell you what, Lorn. Hand her over to me," he pointed to Kyra. "And I'll let you keep your credits." As if to enforce his position in the matter, his men readied their weapons, but didn't point them at the trio. Their fingers were clearly itchy on the trigger though, judging by how antsy and jumpy they were acting.

Lorn turned to look at Kyra, and saw just how tense she was, even through her mask. He then looked over at Nax, who was silently judging Lorn's decision. Lorn put the credit stick back in his suit, and the smuggler seemed satisfied, relaxing.

…until Lorn grabbed a hidden blaster, grabbed the smuggler, and started using him as a human shield, all in one swift maneuver, with such speed and grace that betrayed his weight. "Sorry, friends! Slavery's not something we Ulgos pride ourselves on!" he shouted, and then opened fire. Kyra and Nax both drew their weapons, and started shooting along with Lorn. All of the smugglers were too slow to start shooting before the trio did.

Nax hit the leftmost guy dead on in the torso, all of the slug pellets connecting, causing him to stumble to the ground and collapse. He racked another shell, and switched targets to the one directly to his right. A red bolt from his blaster pistol shot towards Lorn, and slammed into the smuggler captain's body. Lorn responded by flicking his blaster pistol and returning fire, sending several blue bolts his way, killing him with a few well placed shots.

Nax then turned around to face the two on his right, and saw Kyra shoot three shots towards the one to her left. Two hit the man in the chest, causing him to stumble back, while the third scuffed his face. A fourth shot ended his life. The fourth guy made the smart decision to run away, and by now was at the ramp, running up. Kyra and Lorn managed to shoot him in the leg, causing him to fall, but he quickly picked himself up and closed the ramp, rendering pursuit impossible.

The telltale sound of the YT-series' engines turning on suddenly drowned out any of the noise in the spaceport, and the 2400 started to take off. As it turned around, the engines came to full blast, knocking several of the crates over, and blowing the trio-as well as the smuggler captain- away from where they were standing, until the 2400 was far enough away for the engines to not have any backblast effects anymore.

Nax rubbed his head and picked himself up, no worse for wear than before. He got up, grabbed his shotgun, and ran to Kyra, helping her up. When she was on her feet, they both turned to look at Lorn, who was shooting at the escaping smuggler captain, who was running away with a limp. When he was around a corner, Lorn didn't pursue, instead opting to keep facing the corner he ran around, blaster at the ready, just in case he came back.

He didn't.

Lorn raised his blaster, pointing the barrel at the air, but not pulling the trigger. He then looked over at the crates, and, seemingly relieved that the weapons weren't damaged, turned to the pair, holding out a credit chip. "Here you go, friends! Forty-five hundred credits, as discussed!" he smiled warmly.

Nax took the credit chip. "…Thanks." he said, setting the chip inside his duster. "Do you need any help getting these crates hidden? Imperials could come looking for 'em." he gestured to the slew of suspicious and highly illegal crates.

"No need, Imperial patrols won't be here for another hour, and my transport will be long gone by then."

Right, nobles have connections. Probably paid the Imperials off.

Nax and Kyra were about to leave, but Lorn called out, "Wait," he said, "What's your name?"

Nax had totally forgotten to introduce himself earlier. Bad business, that. "Nax Strag."

Lorn smiled and nodded. "You have my thanks, Mr. Strag."

Nax felt like asking him to drop the formalities, but he was just being polite-probably, so he didn't.

* * *

"W-w-well sir, they took us by surprise. I panicked and ran for my life, I'm sure you understand." the crew member nervously said, tugging at his shirt collar.

Lostur felt like a vein was about to pop. "Oh, I understand. You're a coward. Not only that, but you left an asset far more valuable than yourself behind. Now, do you understand what I do to cowards in my crew, scrapbrain?" he threatened, although the smuggler didn't seem to pick up on the threat.

"N-no, sir…"

Lostur drew his slug pistol and shot once, the slug entering the man's skull through the front, and sending gray matter out the back, dropping him dead instantly. "Someone toss this coward's body out the airlock! And clean the mess up, while you're at it!" he shouted. On cue, multiple slaves appeared from seemingly nowhere, and began ferrying the body away. Two slaves stayed behind and began to clean the blood and brains from the dirty bridge floor.

His Twi'lek slave ran her fingers along his face, cooing as she did so. Lostur grabbed her hand forcefully. "No." was all he said, and the Twi'lek retracted her hand, knowing better than to disobey her master. Sex wasn't on his day plan; he was focused on far more important things, like the retrieval of his _**property**_ , which was going poorly right now.

He tapped on his commlink, and a connection was established to the diminished fourth ground team. _"Boss."_ a rough and scratchy, but still distinctly feminine voice sounded out.

"Kaz." Lostur replied flatly. "Bit of a changeup in your job. Dav and his men were double-crossed by that noble from Alderaan they were dealing with. One of the cowards he worked with ran away and left him to fend for himself."

" _You take care of him?"_

"Take a guess." Lostur said, disinterested. A hoarse, dry laugh came from the other end of the comm. "That said, Dav is apparently alive."

Kaz snickered loud enough for the commlink to pick it up. _"So, whaddya want us to do? Kill 'im?"_

Lostur rolled his eyes in annoyance. "No."

" _Idn't 'e a loose end?"_

"Not yet. He should still be in Mos Eisley. From what the coward told me, after Dav and his men nabbed his guards, the noble went and hired some mercs."

" _And?"_

"One of the mercs matches your description of my missing property." he seethed. "Find Dav, shake whatever information you can from him, and then force him to help you. If he refuses, remind him of what I'll _personally_ do to him if he comes back up _without_ her."

" _Got it. They were at docking bay ninety four, right?"_

"Yes."

The commlink clicked off to signal the connection had been cut.

Lostur rubbed his temples to provide some semblance of catharsis. The sheer _**incompetence**_ of his crew was becoming incredibly evident. Even though Foss' men weren't part of his crew _per se_ , they _were_ under contract, and as such, were obligated to do as he demanded, unless they didn't mind losing their heads, literally. As such, that meant that Dav needed to work with Kaz and whatshisface if he valued living.

It boggled his mind at how just _one escaped slave girl_ could be so difficult to capture.

Lostur's thought process was interrupted by a familiar, intoxicating smell. "Whoever's smoking our stock of death sticks better quit it, before I put a slug through their brain!" he shouted menacingly, and heard a scrunching sound, before the smell went away.

Case in point.

* * *

Kaz tapped her distracted partner's shoulder. "Hey, Bolthead, quit staring at Jawa asses, we've got work to do." she said condescendingly.

Bolthead arched his back to look at her. "You mean we didn't have work before?" he snarked.

Kaz smacked him. "Shut it. We need to go near docking bay ninety four."

Bolthead rubbed his cheek. "Why, we leaving?" he asked fairly innocently. Kaz smacked him again. "That wasn't necessary!" he shouted, upset at the physical abuse he was receiving from his "friend."

Kaz snickered. "Just felt like smacking you." she said as her partner got up, rubbing his face from the slaps. "No, Dav and his men got doublecrossed. Dav's apparently alive, and the Boss says he has some more information on that girl we're looking for."

"Why not just look for her like how we've been doing?" Bolthead asked, as if that wasn't the most obvious thing in the galaxy.

Kaz turned to him, annoyed. "Because we've been running around like headless Eopies with no info on her other than what we saw the other day, and the Boss said Dav has to help us look for her. I'd be much more comfortable with Dav than the piece of trash Slev that we used to have."

Bolthead nodded. "…That's actually not all that bad of a plan."

Kaz rolled her eyes. "'Course it's not, cause you didn't have a hand in it."

Bolthead raised a finger to try and retort, but Kaz shot him an evil glare, and he lowered it, keeping his mouth shut for his own safety.

* * *

Dav Foss stumbled into an alleyway, clutching at his wounds. He'd taken a few bad blaster shots, from his own men no less, and they hurt like hell. Being a contracted smuggler was NOT worth it if this was what he could expect most of the time. He did see Lancer get on board the ship and fly away, but he didn't have much faith that the others were alive. Most of his friends; gone in the blink of an eye, just like that.

Dav leaned up against a wall and sat down, holding his stomach in pain, before partially taking his shirt off to see how bad the damage was. Around half of his torso was marked by three scorchmarks, the skin and nerves in the immediate area burned and dead, no feeling left in them, while everything around the three wounds was practically screaming in pain. He clutched the wounds, trying to subdue the pain, to no effect.

What he wouldn't give for a bacta salve right about now.

"Having trouble there, Foss?" Kaz suddenly said to his left.

Dav turned his head to look at her, and she was dangling a medpack in front of his face. He weakly tried to grab it from her, but she casually pulled her arm back. "Nice try, Dav, but no." Dav looked up at her, and she was smugly smirking down at the unfortunate smuggler. "I'll give you this if you tell me about the mercenaries the noble had."

Under normal circumstances, Dav would shoot her for asking to reveal client information, but seeing as how not only was the job set up by Lostur and not himself, but he was also double-crossed, he didn't really care. "Fine." he choked out.

"Smart move. How many mercs were there?"

"Just two. The girl, and a man."

Bolthead suddenly got close to Kaz. "A man? She was alone when we found her at the garrison." he said, and Kaz smacked him. "Barring the droid, I mean."

"Describe the man." Kaz commanded.

Dav scratched his head, before clutching his stomach again. "He was tall, probably a full head taller than any of us. Pale, strong facial features, black hair and a stubble. Think he had heterowhatsit, too."

"'Heterowhatsit'?" Bolthead asked.

"Heterochromia. 'e's got eyes that are different colors."

"Oh." Bolthead said, and preemptively winced in preparation for Kaz to smack him, but that never came.

"…uh, what else…" Dav droned on. "Oh! Right! He had some wide brimmed hat and a duster, carried around one of those sideways shotguns, too. The ones that look like those Araykd shotguns, like the one Slev had."

Kaz looked at Bolthead, and then back at Dav. "What about the girl?"

Dav winced at the pain briefly. "Same clothes she had when you found her. Had a DL-44 though, looked modified, couldn't really tell."

Bolthead cocked his head slightly. "Did you get a good look at it?"

Kaz smacked him again. "Of course 'e didn't, you moron! 'e was getting _**shot at**_! Looking at someone's gun wouldn't be at the top of anyone's list in that situation!" she shouted, smacking Bolthead a second time for good measure.

Dav doubled over in pain, trying to hold his screaming back. "Speaking of…" he coughed, "…getting shot."

Kaz rolled her eyes as she pushed Dav on his back, taking his shirt off to reveal the wounds. She opened the medpack and took out a salve and some bandages, squirting the salve onto her hand. It smelled like bantha droppings, but she didn't really care. Bolthead started retching, though a quick glare from Kaz put an end to that. She smeared the salve onto Dav's torso, and he winced from the pain, but didn't complain otherwise. After about two minutes, the salve had been applied to the wounds, and Dav smelled worse than he did before. "Arch your back." Kaz commanded, and Dav obeyed. Kaz then grabbed the bandages, and started wrapping his torso up to keep the salve in place. When she was done, she handed Dav his shirt back, which he took and put back on.

Dav briefly coughed, "Guess I'll be heading back to the Bantha, then." he said, already sounding better than before, before getting up, about to walk off.

Kaz grabbed his arm, and he glanced at her. "No, you won't be." she said maliciously. "The boss says you're stuck with us for the foreseeable future." Dav tried to break away from her, but her grip didn't budge. "You know what'll happen if you try and go back without the girl, Foss. Don't test us." Kaz threatened.

Dav sighed. "Sithspit." he said dejectedly, and Kaz released her grip. Dav didn't run, so she picked up everything and set it all back inside the medpack.

Bolthead looked hesitant to speak, seeing as how Kaz kept slapping him for the smallest of offenses, but against his better judgement, he spoke. "Hey, Kaz." he asked as they were walking out of the alleyway. "Why's the boss so fixated on catching this one girl? She doesn't seem all that special to me."

Kaz shrugged, not making eye contact with him. "'ell if I know. Maybe she's worth a lot of credits to the right people." she said casually.

"Maybe he wants to screw her brains out?" Dav suggested.

Kaz laughed. "Knowing him, that's probably the case."

Bolthead pushed his fingers together nevously. "…So, where are we going now?"

Kaz glanced back at him. "Chalmun's."

"Why?"

Kaz stared at him, as if he were an idiot. " _For a drink._ " she said condescendingly.

* * *

The trio walked into Chalmun's through the front entrance, and almost immediately, Dav was tackled by a woman. Bolthead and Kaz both reached for their weapons, but stopped short when they realized Dav wasn't being attacked. Rather, he was being hugged. "Dav, I missed you!" she said gleefully.

Dav struggled against her grip. "Allura… let go…" he gasped, and the woman, apparently known as Allura, let go of Dav, giving him a kiss on the cheek before she did. Allura was a thin woman of average height and thin build, with long brown hair, with a long, white, and rather revealing dress on. Not revealing in the sense that she looked like a prostitute, but it was certainly lewd.

She smiled innocently at Dav. "Where've you been?"

Dav scratched the back of his neck nervously. "Working." he hesitantly said, although Allura didn't seem to notice.

Allura noticed Bolthead and Kaz, and turned her head to the side to get a closer look at the pair. "Who are these two?" she asked.

Dav glanced back at Kaz. "These two? They work for my employer. We're actually looking for someone, and I was hoping to run into you."

Allura's eyes widened. "…Really, now? Who're you looking for?" she asked, brushing some hair out of her face.

"A woman, about my height. Bright blue eyes, fair skin, long white hair. Probably had rags on, looks like she doesn't really belong on Tatooine. You seen her?"

Allura looked around briefly, and her face contorted as she tried to remember anyone who looked like that. "Hrm…" she mumbled. "I… think I have? Two days ago, a woman came in that looked like the person you're talking about. I didn't pay her much mind, but she did have the rags and long white hair. Maybe it's the same person?" she half shrugged.

"Did you see her leave?" Bolthead asked, and Kaz restrained herself from smacking him.

Allura put her hand on her hip, and raised her other hand, snapping her fingers together rapidly, making a few clicking noises with her mouth as she thought. "I'm pretty sure she left with… Nax, I think his name was? He's a bounty hunter, frequents the cantina. Only spoke to him once, though. Tall, black hair, wears a longcoat and wide brimmed hat. Hard to miss him if you see him."

Dav glanced at Kaz. "Same guy." he mouthed to her.

Suddenly, a group of Ithorians came through the door, and bumped into the trio. They shouted at them in their native tongue, and barged their way through. Allura bowed her head. "I should probably be going now. See you soon, Dav!" she yelled as she walked out the door.

Bolthead walked up behind Dav. "Who was that?" he asked.

Dav glanced at him from over his shoulder. "One of my girlfriends." Dav casually said, putting emphasis on the plural.

Kaz looked at him with disdain. "Glad to see being a manwhore hasn't gone out of style with you smugglers." she mocked, rolling her eyes.

Dav shot a glare back at her, although she wasn't intimidated.

* * *

Nax was about to fall asleep, having more or less finished the day's work. Kyra was in her room, already fast asleep. In the past two days alone, they had accumulated eighteen thousand credits, including what he had before he found Kyra. Maybe he was wrong about it taking longer to get that starfighter. If jobs kept coming in at the rate they had been with the amount of credits they were getting from them, they'd be out of here before the end of the month. Hell, he could actually probably just buy a YT-1300 in a few days, take Kyra, R5, and Z-3PO, and leave this hellhole of a planet forever. Then again, freighters were heavy, bulky, and hard to maneuver, unlike that starfighter he had his eye on.

His mind drifted on to that weapons deal earlier. Nax wasn't as concerned with the fact that a noble was dealing in weapons, but rather that the smuggler captain had escaped. Loose end or not, that was probably another body out looking for him and Kyra. Not to mention, he had seen his face, so now _he_ would be targeted as well.

Nax's thoughts were interrupted by Kyra suddenly screaming. In a flash, he went from his bed, to Kyra's room, kneeling at her side. She was writhing around in pain, clutching her stomach. Nax managed to hold her down and get her to look at him. "What's wrong?" Nax asked, panicked.

"Bruises!" Kyra managed to yell in between grunts and restrained yells, clearly panicked. "They beat me on the ship!" she managed to get out, before going into a long, barely restrained scream, gritting her teeth. "Must've reopened or something, I don't know!" she yelled, tears starting to flow from her eyes from the pain.

"Let me see." Nax said, moving to undo her sleeping robes to see what was wrong. Kyra instinctively swatted his hands away out of fear, and possibly mistrust. He looked down at her, locking eyes. "Kyra. Don't." he said calmly, trying to seem as non-threatening as possible.

Kyra swatted his hands away again. "No!" she shouted, obviously distressed. "I don't want to get beaten again!" she screamed, hysterical.

"…Kyra, I can't help you if I don't know how bad it is. I promise to not hurt you." Nax said, maintaining his calm tone of voice. "Please." he begged.

Kyra slowly calmed down, her breathing returning more or less to normal, although she was still clutching her stomach in pain. The lack of a response didn't ease Nax up, but her behavior otherwise seemed to signal that she was okay with Nax taking a look, so he moved to take the robe off again. Kyra tensed up, but didn't offer any sort of resistance, so he undid the robe and fully removed it, revealing her heavily bruised body. She gasped at the cold air suddenly touching her bruises, and Nax began to look at them.

"Don't see any blast marks… hmm… no cuts, either." Nax mumbled as he looked at her wounds. Kyra had suddenly went silent, and Nax looked up to see her staring intently at him, biting down on the pillow to muffle her screaming. "Sit here, I'll go get some bandages." he said, before running into the bathroom across the hall. Above the sink was the medical cabinet, and he rifled through it, trying to find where the roll of bandages was. He found it and grabbed a pair of scissors, and ran back into Kyra's room. He cut the package open and grabbed one end of the roll, and immediately started wrapping Kyra's torso up. The bacta contained inside the cloth would seep into her skin, and over time, would heal the bruises. As he wrapped, Nax had to occasionally pick Kyra up to get the bandage around her body fully, to which she would audibly complain, but it wasn't screaming like earlier, more like wincing, with the occasional muffled "oh" and "ah" coming from her.

He finished wrapping her torso up, the bandage running out just below her covered breasts, which also seemed to be where the bruises ended.

Convenient.

Nax snipped off the end of the bandage, tossing it, and Kyra let go of the pillow, taking in a deep breath of air. "You have _no idea_ how painful that was." she said, elated beyond belief.

Nax put his right arm over his right leg, kneeling. "Still hurt?"

Kyra half nodded. "…Little bit. It's just a stinging feeling now."

Nax breathed a sigh of relief. "You should have told me about your bruises sooner." he advised. "I'd have patched you up on the spot."

Kyra sighed. "I didn't because, well, they… weren't like this before. I don't know how they got this bad. I'm sure I was shot earlier, but I didn't feel any immediate pain, so I thought I was fine…" she trailed off. "Even then, I still wasn't sure if you were for real, or if you were going to…" she gulped, "…beat me."

Nax blinked twice at the mere notion that he would do anything like that, before handing her the sleeping robes back, which she slipped into. He exhaled, and then looked at Kyra. "I don't want you moving from this bed for the next few days."

Kyra's eyes widened. "But-" she protested.

"Not a step out of bed. I mean it."

Kyra's head fell into her pillow, defeated, and Nax left her room quietly.

* * *

Kaz dragged Bolthead and Dav out of Chalmun's by the collar, smacking them both upside the head for getting blackout drunk on the job. There's a _**very**_ fine line between having a drink, and destroying your fragging liver in a single night, and this pair of reject jokers went flying over it through hyperspace and straight into a sun. If she had her way, she'd plant a slug in both of their skulls and be done with it, but she didn't get her way. Instead, she had to work with them until they found the girl, and that meant she had to put up with shit like this.

As she dragged her dead weight into a two story abandoned building near the cantina, her commlink beeped in her ear, so she pressed down on it, throwing Bolthead and Dav to the ground as she did so. "Kaz speaking."

" _Kaz._ " Lostur's voice growled through the commlink. " _I'd like a progress report,_ _ **if you'd be so kind**_ _._ "he maliciously threatened.

"Found Dav, patched him up after shaking him down."

"… _And what did you find out?_ "

"Well, according to one of Dav's girlfriends," Kaz heard a roar of laughter on the other end, "She was seen leaving Chalmun's a few days ago with a bounty hunter named Nax. She didn't give a last name, but his description matches one of the bodyguards that noble hired, alongside the girl."

Kaz heard Lostur spit a drink out. " _She_ _ **WHAT?!**_ " he yelled.

"She was one of the noble's bodyg-"

" _I heard you the first time, moron!_ " he snapped, before Kaz heard him exhale over the comms in frustration. " _…If she was a bodyguard, she probably knows how to shoot. Bounty hunter might've given her some basic pointers. Great. Anything else?"_

"He frequents Chalmun's, according to Dav's girlfriend. That's all we've got."

" _I want you to keep tabs on the cantina, then. If you as much as hear a_ _ **hint**_ _that he's in the area,_ _ **go after him, no hesitation**_ _._ " he said, hatred and malice filling his voice. " _That said, now that I have a name, I'm going to call in some favors, see if I can't figure out where this piece of trash lives._ " Lostur seethed, before the commlink shut off on his end.

As soon as Lostur's voice went away from the commlink, Kaz felt someone grabbing at her legs. "…Hnngh, Allura… you have such nice… haah…" Dav moaned in his drunken stupor. Kaz immediately kneed him in the face, and woke him up fully. Dav jumped straight up, half in a defensive CQC pose, half holding his nose in pain. "Son of a- what the hell was that for?" he shouted angrily at Kaz.

Bolthead wasn't woken up by the racket, and he just slumped over, for all intents and purposes, he was basically dead to the galaxy. "Felt like doing it." Kaz snarked, and Dav readied himself to punch her. "You're on watch." she dictated authoritatively, pushing a blaster into Dav's hands. "Keep an eye on the cantina. You see our friend or the boss' property walk into that cantina, you come to me _immediately_. Otherwise, I couldn't give less of a shit if Yoda himself walked in there." Kaz said, before walking off further back into the abandoned building.

Bolthead opened one eye and lowered his voice. "She gone?" he asked hesitantly, hoping she wasn't in earshot.

Dav looked down at him from a chair near the window. "Yeah." Dav said, his voice incredibly nasally from having to pinch down on his nose.

Bolthead rolled his eyes. "Man, what a pain she is." he said, frustration oozing and dripping from his words. Dav just raised an eyebrow out of curiosity.

"I wouldn't know." Dav casually replied, staring out the window.

Bolthead looked dumbfounded briefly, before it suddenly hit him. "Right, you're new, aren't you?"

"Ish. Signed out a contract with Lostur for a three month employment period, I dunno, two weeks ago?" Dav paused. "Yeah, two weeks ago sounds about right."

"Man, if you're that new, you don't know how _nasty_ Kaz can get."

Bolthead then launched into a lengthy tirade about Kaz's general behavior. Notable examples include her seemingly random urge to beat Bolthead for no real reason, her willingness to shoot comrades on multiple occasions, and several personal accounts of petty theft. While it wasn't always coherent or sane, Dav kept his ear open for the partially drunk Bolthead. Although the more he actually went on, the less sane and more deranged and drunk Bolthead seemed. Eventually, he passed out, granting Dav at least a few hours of silence.

* * *

Kyra's eyes fluttered open to stare at the sandstone wall. She tried to sit up, but her bandaged state vehemently disagreed with her, and she was forced to lay back down due to the sudden feeling of being stung by a thousand insects. She sighed, and rolled over to see a small portable table with some things on it, as well as R5 staring expectantly at her.

Her vision was still blurry, so she rubbed her eyes to try and clear it. When it did eventually clear, she saw what was actually on the table. One was a small box with two latches on the front and a note on top that read "For Kyra," in the same Aurebesh scratch as on the graves of Nax's brother and father. Sitting next to the box was a small, square electronic device plugged in to a wall socket, with a pan on top.

R5 cheerily beeped, as if to say "good morning!" to her.

Kyra yawned and stretched her arms in bed. "Morning, Arfive." she said, tired, yet oddly at peace despite her… episode last night.

Arfive beeped and wobbled, and then a hologram of Nax suddenly appeared next to Kyra, albeit covered in the blue filter all holograms seemed to have in the galaxy.

"Hey, Kyra," the hologram said, staring blankly at the wall. "I'm having Arfive record this message for you, 'cause by the time you get up, I'll be gone. I shouldn't be gone for more than a few hours. I'll be out in Mos Eisley getting food and more ammo, so I left you some breakfast in that box by your bed, plus I dug my dad's old hot plate out for you to reheat it on, IF you need to." the hologram coughed. "Also, I set the '44 under your bed, just in case you need it."

The hologram of Nax glitched out, and Arfive started making a series of frustrated beeps as he kept trying to rewind it, but eventually gave up. "-emember what I told you, Kyra. Stay. In. Bed. I mean it." it finished, before disappearing.

Kyra yawned again, and pulled the box over, releasing the latches. She felt the heat pouring out from the box, washing over her body. Kyra reached in, and pulled out a plate of scrambled eggs, still warm. " _Must've left not too long ago._ " she thought, digging in.

As Kyra ate, she could still feel the bandages hugging her torso, and her mind invariably wandered to what Nax had done for her. He had not only accepted a total stranger into his home, but fed her, gave her clothes and a safe place to sleep in, given her a job and a way off the planet, trained her on how to properly use a blaster to defend herself, and even given her medical attention. It was all so jarring for her.

She went from waking up on a slaver ship, stripped of her humanity, being beaten, assaulted, and starved, probably about to be sold off to some backwater crimelord, never to be seen again, to living in relative comfort and safety with Nax, and a way to get off Tatooine in reach. She was practically a queen now, compared to how she was a few days ago.

Kyra knew she owed Nax a huge debt for saving her, she just didn't know how to repay it once they got off Tatooine.

* * *

 **That's the chapter. Be sure to leave a review.**

' **Till next time.**

 **-Tweak**


	3. Clubbed to Death

**New chapter, and** _ **what do you know**_ **, the second I make it T rated and upload a new chapter I get a shitton of views. Fucking amazing.**

 **To Keeper of Dream: What, in Legends? Yeah, I already knew about them. I think Bly was one of them since the 327** **th** **kept eating shit under Secura, hence why they continued to shoot her after she was dead (vs Bacara and the Galactic Marines just checking the body or Cody just shooting the AT-TE at Obi-Wan). In Canon, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the commanders hated the Jedi and would have gladly killed them even without the control chip.**

 **Read and review.**

* * *

Nax tossed the DL-44 power packs up in the air, and caught each of them as they fell back to the ground. He'd already gotten most of the food for the next few weeks, and had already picked up some fresh ammo for Kyra's '44, more than what she would realistically need, but like Dad always said, "Better overstocked and loaded down on ammo than to run dry in a firefight." in his heavy Concord Dawn accent, even heavier than Nax's.

A sudden pang of sadness hit Nax, but he shook it off. He'd intended to leave Tatooine in the first place, but now it was better to just forget all of it happened when he did leave, and just have it be one bad memory. Even still, Nax clearly hadn't fully gotten over the attack. Maybe he never would. He didn't know.

As he turned into the bazaar, Nax spotted a large crowd of people around Thel's stall, shouting angrily. Rodians, Humans, Twi'leks, Trandoshans, even a few Wookies were all in the mass of bodies. Nax rolled his eyes, and put his thumb under the shotgun's sling, ready to pull it off at a moment's notice and ready his weapon, but he was still more or less at ease.

The closer he got, the clearer the shouting became, and the puzzle pieces of what they were angry about slowly began to match together.

"I want a refund!" one of the Humans yelled, raising his fist in anger, and his Wookie companion roared.

"Your ammo dessstroyed my best ssslugthrower!" a Trandoshan hissed, holding up two parts of a broken slug rifle. The entire receiver was split in two, straight down the middle, clearly slagged and melted around the part where the hammer normally was in a slug rifle. Bad handload, maybe?

Whatever the case, Nax pressed on into the crowd, and he managed to get a good look at Thel trying his hardest at damage control. "Please! Calm down! I know I sold bad ammo!" he apologized profusely, and that only seemed to make the crowd angrier. "I'll rebuild any damaged weapons for free!"

The crowd was still angry, bordering on rioting, until a seven man Stormtrooper patrol came up, and the lead officer shot into the air with an SE-14. "Clear the area immediately, or you'll all be going to jail!" he shouted with a considerable amount of authority in his voice, like he was used to dealing with this exact situation before.

The effect was almost immediate; the crowd stopped yelling, and were now looking at each other, and over at the Stormtrooper patrol. A few Humans and a Twi'lek charged the Stormtroopers, damaged weapons being used as blunt weapons, but they were quickly put down on the ground with swift CQC moves and thrown into stuncuffs, and the crowd started to disperse, deciding it wasn't worth it to resist.

The crowd had disappeared into the background of Mos Eisley, and the Stormtroopers were hauling the people that resisted away to the garrison, so Nax took that as his cue to finally talk to Thel. "Bad ammo, huh?" he smirked. "How'd that happen?" Nax asked as he ribbed Thel jokingly.

Thel looked over at the departing Stormtroopers, and then back to Nax. "Bad death sticks is my guess." he replied, his voice lowered just in case.

It took longer than Nax would have liked to admit for that sentence to process. "…Wait, what?" he finally responded, dumbfounded.

"…Huh?"

"You… made slugthrower ammo with death sticks?" Nax pressed.

Thel blinked a few times, and his eyes suddenly went wide. "Oh, you're talking about… yeah, no, not ACTUAL death sticks. You can't make ammo with those." Thel clarified.

Nax squinted his eyes at his friend. "So… what're you talking about, then?"

Thel huffed, as if he expected Nax to know this instinctively. "I'm talking about byproducts of Tibanna refinement. It's all the trash that gets thrown out in the refining process, and I just call 'em death sticks cause the tubes they come in look kinda similar to the junk in death sticks."

He cleared his throat, and prepared to explain. "Tibanna by itself is too strong for regular blasters that aren't designed with it in mind, and the refined gas is incompatible with propellant, but all of the waste? That all works in slugthrowers." he smiled at himself, before leaning down onto his table. "I came up with a custom hand load for slugs that combines the Tibanna waste with regular propellant. I'm not gonna bore you with the details, but it's a stronger mix than anything I know of, since it's got a higher velocity, less drop, and more penetration. Only problem is…"

"…It's unstable?" Nax interjected.

Thel gave Nax finger guns. "Exactly. You have to get the mix _just right_ , otherwise, the whole thing shits the bed. Too little, and it'll just misfire. Too much, and the whole gun explodes in your face."

Nax looked surprised. It was, admittedly, a novel concept, however laserbrained it seemed. "So." Nax suddenly said. "How did you upset that crowd?"

His friend suddenly looked nervous, and he scratched the back of his neck. "Well, when I figured out how to make them, I took out a big loan from someone I _really shouldn't have_ , and I was so excited by the potential profit when I was making the ammo, I kind of… well… messed up." he eeked out, looking like he was about to die from embarrassment.

Nax went stone faced. "You better not have taken a loan from who I think you did." he said, disappointment reigning over his tone.

Thel sighed. "I did."

Nax looked like he was about to go ballistic, but restrained himself, and he took a deep breath. "So, what do you do now?"

Thel bit his lip, and he looked around. "…Well, I've got another shipment of the stuff coming in today. I know what I did wrong, so I'm gonna make a new batch that should actually work. I'll sell that off, pay my debt, and go back to selling my regular stock."

Nax sucked his lower lip in and nodded. "Sounds like you've got a plan then, Thel. Need any help?" he offered.

Thel rolled his head to the side. "Eh, what the hell? I don't expect anything to go wrong, but having some backup couldn't hurt. I'll give you some of the slugs as payment."

"Sure." Nax replied, and they walked off towards the speeder. He needed more ammo anyways, and while he did need credits, he didn't feel like pressing his friend on credits for something as simple as this.

They both hopped in, and Thel moved some of the stuff that was sitting in the passenger seat away to get comfortable, and the turbine engines roared to life, lifting the speeder off the ground, and giving the two friends a jolt in their seats from how sudden it was. Nax glanced over at Thel. "Where to?" he asked.

"Docking bay twenty two. It's coming in on a YT-1300, same guy I bought it from last time." Thel loudly said, although Nax could only just barely hear him.

Nax put the pedal down, and the speeder took off towards the docking bay. "Didn't you say the stuff was bad earlier?" he half yelled over the roaring engines.

"I meant that I screwed the mixture up! The stuff itself was fine!"

Nax continued to drive in silence for several minutes, before he spoke up again. "How'd you even find out how to make this stuff?"

Thel laughed suspiciously. "Well, believe it or not, I found out from a shady looking guy in a back alley! Tested it as soon as I got home, left a huge hole in my wall!"

"You did what!?" Nax retorted. Thel wasn't always the smartest, but to take an unstable and untested hand-loading recipe and then willingly make it, and then _use it_ in your own home? That was an entirely new level of stupid, even by Thel's standards.

Thel laughed harder. "Yeah! Believe it or not, I don't really care, but it works!" he paused, and then laughed again. "You'd think the Imperials would be all _over_ this kind of thing, especially with all those rebels popping up lately!"

Nax paused. "The Empire has a rebel problem? How'd that happen?"

Thel looked over at him like he was stupid. "Yeah! They're not organized from what everyone can tell, but they started popping up after some kind of transmission that came from Lothal around… I dunno, a year ago? It was a call to rebellion or something stupid like that."

Nax smiled and shrugged. "Hey, I don't really care, that just means more bounties to bring in!"

Thel laughed as they pulled up on Docking Bay 22, and he jumped out before the speeder had powered down, nearly getting his foot caught. Nax jumped out after him, and they both walked inside. The general interior of the docking bay was identical to bay ninety four from yesterday. Steps leading up to a sort of buffer room inside between the landing pad and the outside, with a second, larger door leading to the central ring. Only difference was the interior was stripped of any sort of furniture, barring a few lights.

As they approached the big door, it opened automatically, revealing a nearly mint condition YT-1300. On the ground, directly below the two "fangs" of the 1300, was a human in a leather jacket with a wide brimmed hat, leaning on a repulsorsled that had three crates on it. The crates, while not particularly tall, stretched the entire length of the sled. The man looked up at the pair, and then tipped his hat. "If I'd known that you'd want more of this junk so soon, I'd have stocked up!" he said with a laugh.

Thel fished out a credit chip and handed it over to the man. "Yeah, well, I didn't prepare for the possibility that I'd mess up, so now I'm paying the price for it. Thirty thousand creds, like we discussed." he said, and the man took the credits, putting them into his jacket.

He then leaned over, and noticed Nax. "Who's this?"

Thel glanced back at his friend. "Oh, him? That's Nax, the friend that got his brother and helped me chase those Tuskens away from my home a few years ago." he gestured. "Nax, this is Gavin."

Gavin tipped his hat. "Howdy." he greeted. Nax just waved back. "Glad to finally meet you, Nax. Any friend of Thel's is a friend of mine. Specially one that'll shoot Tuskens without blinking." Gavin said, giving a friendly smile. Nax gave a nod of acknowledgement, but didn't say anything otherwise.

Gavin suddenly cracked his knuckles. "Well, Thel, I'd love to catch up with you, but I need to get going. Later." he waved behind him as he headed up the 1300's ramp. Thel grabbed the repulsorsled, and started taking it back to the landspeeder, with Nax taking up the rear, holding on to the back of the sled.

The pair brought the sled behind the X-34, and then used the onboard gravlink to attach it to the speeder so that it wouldn't go flying off. Thel and Nax then both made sure that the crates were secured properly to the sled, and then they hopped in, taking off toward Thel's house in Mos Eisley.

"So, who was that?" Nax shouted.

"You remember that mellow kid who kind of just existed whenever you came over when were younger?" Thel responded, and Nax had to dig through his memories a bit to try and remember who he was referring to.

"…I think, yeah. What about him?"

"That was Gavin. He and I were good friends, he ended up getting his own ship, now he smuggles for me. I've got him on call when I need him."

Nax had to shield his eyes from the glare of the twin suns. "That was _him_? He didn't seem anywhere close to that."

Thel laughed and looked over at his friend. "Well, owing a lot of debts changes people, and Gavin was worse about it than I am."

Nax shrugged nonchalantly, and continued driving towards Thel's house.

* * *

The pair entered the house trough the front door, and the lights kicked on, revealing a dirty, messy living room. There were notes strewn all over the walls, weapon parts lying around, and spent slugs and blaster packs all over the floor. Not to mention the considerable amount of weapon crates and cases on all of the furniture, enough to arm a platoon, by Nax's guess, and the distinct smell of propellant in the air.

Thel and Nax went back outside, and started to bring the crates in, one by one. It wasn't a tough job, since the Tibanna waste inside was incredibly light, but they were both being very slow about it so as to not accidentally blow themselves up or something. When all the crates were inside, Nax powered down the repulsorsled, and headed into the house to see Thel already opening one of the crates, holding a tube of multicolored liquid. "I see why you call this stuff death sticks now." he commented idly. Thel ignored him and pushed the boxes over to an ammo loading bench near the kitchen.

He turned a work light on, and then grabbed a beaker full of propellant, setting it on the bench. Thel then shook the tube of Tibanna sludge briefly, and tapped it twice, probably to clear any air bubbles. Thel then took the cap off of the tube, and carefully poured it into the beaker of propellant, before sniffing a few times. A terrible, burning smell slowly made its way to Nax's nose, and he covered it to try and block it out. "The hell is that smell?" he asked.

"That's the smell of the mixture working." Thel replied as he grabbed a spoon and began to stir the mixture together, before suddenly stopping. I almost forgot to mention, this stuff doesn't work on shotguns. No idea why, but it just doesn't. You want it for your dad's Aug2?"

Nax shrugged. "Sure."

About twenty minutes had passed, and Thel finally finished making the custom ammo for the Aug2, using spare slugs, casings, and primers he had lying around the house.

While Thel worked, neither of them had heard the slowly growing crowd outside the door, and neither had any time to react when they came rushing in. Nax was the first to get clubbed, and Thel could only turn and see a Rodian charging him, before he was beaten over the head with a Gaderffii stick, and knocked out instantly.

* * *

Nax felt someone punch him upside the head, right in the jaw. His eyes shot open, and he found himself in a dark room, probably a basement, where the only source of light was a single bulb in the middle of the room that barely illuminated a slumped over Thel, and a Rodian on his right.

With what little light there was, Nax could see that the Rodian had light green skin with spots of dark green occasionally marking his face; a sign of age, and he had longer antennae. The Rodian was also carrying a Gaderffii stick, smacking the club end in his palm menacingly. _"Good… you're awake."_ a soothing, sultry, feminine voice said in his ear. A sudden sense of calm washed over him, and he couldn't help but feel like he was at peace. Like everything was going to be all right. That was despite Nax's natural instincts screaming at him to get the hell out of there, and even if he wanted to, which he didn't, he couldn't, as his arms and legs were tied with rope.

A finger traced along his jawline as a woman with long, bright blue hair and light pink skin came into view, the light barely illuminating her thin figure. _"So sorry about the rude awakening, hon."_ she teased, before kneeling down to reveal her cleavage through her thin purple dress. _"But now that you're awake, we can have some_ _ **fun.**_ _"_ she continued, sitting down in Nax's lap.

The woman cupped Nax's face, and gently turned his head to face her, locking eyes as she did so. _"I know you want me, so let's make a deal. All you have to do to get_ _ **this**_ _…"_ she leaned in close, pointing at herself. _"…is to tell me where you keep the girl."_ she finished, giving Nax a kiss on the cheek to try and show she was genuine.

Nax had spaced out long ago, and only when the woman was crawling over him did he realize he was supposed to answer. "Oh, sure… uh, I keep her at…" he mumbled, and the woman got closer.

" _Go on."_ she whispered sultrily into his ear.

Nax stopped speaking to try and think where he did keep the girl. However, his thought process was interrupted by the Rodian pulling the woman off of him and pointing a large slug pistol in his face. "This is taking too long." the Rodian said with a heavy lisp. "Tell us where you keep the girl, and we _might_ let you live."

Nax immediately snapped back to reality. Whatever effect had been cast on him immediately went away. "Do you know what this is, boy?" the Rodian asked, jamming the pistol into Nax's face. "It's a Czerka Arms 6-10Aug3 Hunting Pistol, strong enough to rip your head off if I pull the trigger." he said, pulling the pistol back, but keeping it aimed at Nax's head. "All you have to do so I don't kill you, is to give up her location."

Nax stared up at the Rodian. "Yeah, sure, she's…" he purposefully droned on. "…up your ass and around the corner." he said, giving a smug grin to the Rodian.

The slug pistol's hammer was suddenly cocked. "Last chance, comedian."

Nax's grin intensified. "Stick it where the suns don't shine, asshole!"

The Rodian seemed to roll his eyes. "Have it your way." he commented, annoyed, and pulled the trigger. Nax shut his eyes, and there was a loud explosion, and he felt something sharp scrape across his face.

But he was still alive.

There was an awful ringing in his ear, and Nax opened one eye to see the Rodian stumbling around, clutching the stump where his hand had been. The woman was off of Nax, visibly berating and beating the Rodian, and she dragged him into the darkness, although he felt vibrations from her stomps getting higher, until they stopped.

So they were in a basement.

Nax felt something else. Something wet, dripping down his face, right below his right eye, where that thing had scraped his face earlier. He reached out with his tongue awkwardly, and managed to lap some of it up. It had a metallic taste to it, like iron.

Blood.

Nax tried to think on how to get out of this situation. It was incredibly dark, and he didn't see any obvious means of escape. It's not like he could think straight anyways, what with that terrible ringing in his ear. He tried to move his hands, but they were bound tight with some kind of rope, same with his feet.

Squinting his eyes at Thel, he tried to focus on his friend. He was slumped over, either unconscious, asleep, or hopefully not, dead. Nax swore under his breath, although he couldn't even hear himself. Choosing to continue his search for anything to cut the rope, he looked to the right, away from the light, and shut his left eye to let the right one adjust to the darkness. Slowly, he could see more of the room being revealed. From what he could tell, it was mostly crates and boxes, nothing he could use to cut the rope.

Turning to the left, Nax repeated the process, and found something more promising; a broken water pipe. It wasn't leaking, but there were jagged edges where the pipe had burst, right about where his hands were tied on the chair. Perfect.

Glancing over at Thel, Nax saw him twitch, and then look up. "…ey gone?" he asked in a hushed tone, and Nax noticed that the white noise was gone now, too.

"Pretty sure. You okay?"

There was a grunt, and Nax heard Thel shifting around. "Aside from my killer headache and the fact that I'm tied up? I'm doing fantastic." he replied sarcastically.

Nax glanced back over at the burst pipe, which wasn't visible anymore, since his eyes had re-adjusted to the light. "They interrogate you?"

There was a dry, quiet laugh. "Hell no. I played dead, suckers bought it. First timers always do."

"…What happened to me back there? It was like I wasn't in control of my own body or thoughts. I almost gave up Kyra's location, too, but that Rodian beat me back to reality."

Thel was briefly confused, and then realized what Nax was talking about. "It was the woman. She's a Zeltron, they emit some kind of pheromones that make people like them more. She must have been using them on you to seduce you into giving her up."

Disappointed at his own failure to resist the Zeltron's charms, he sighed, and started trying to move the chair towards the pipe, carefully testing it to see what he could get away with. After a brief trial and error period, he figured out how to get the chair to move without scraping across the floor. By tilting the chair forward, and then rotating it on an angle, he could slowly inch his way over to the pipe, and get himself in a position to start cutting.

Thel looked over at his friend, and then returned to looking at the floor, playing dead. Nax ignored him, and pressed the chair up against the pipe, briefly feeling around for the jagged edges. Quickly finding where they were in the darkness, he carefully positioned his arms so that the pieces of metal protruding from the pipe were position to cut the rope, and, making sure that his wrists wouldn't be slit, began to quickly saw the rope apart.

The pipe started to shake as soon as he began sawing, crashing against the sandstone in the hole it went up through. Nax immediately stopped and looked up, pressing his head against the pipe to try and stabilize it, and began sawing again, slowly this time. The pipe strained against the pressure, but the smashing and crashing had effectively stopped, and Nax, after a brief period, finally cut the rope with an audible snap, and it fell to the ground. Thel looked over as Nax kneeled over, and quickly undid the ropes around his legs. They, too, fell off.

Carefully getting behind Thel, he undid his binds, and Thel immediately started rubbing his wrists. "We got a game plan?" he asked quietly.

Nax moved down to Thel's legs. "Look for our gear first." he said as he undid the leg bondage.

Thel stood up. "And then?"

"We fight our way out."

Their conversation was cut short by footsteps upstairs, and Thel quickly ran over to the light as quietly as he could, and literally ripped the light from its wire, killing the only source of visibility in the room. Both of them hid near where the stairwell was, ready to attack whoever was coming down. The door to the main floor opened and then shut. "..Stupid fragging Rodian, boss'll have his head…" a heavy, masculine, gravelly voice mumbled angrily. Whoever it was, they were getting close, until the pair heard his bare feet step on the sandstone floor. "The 'ell? Why's it so dark down 'ere?" he said, before they heard the sound of ruffling clothes.

There was the distinct sound of a lighter being opened, and a small orange flame appeared, revealing the face of a Weequay, but not much more. "The light go out or sommat?" he said to himself. The flame extended outwards, away from his face, and he started waving it around, trying to shine a light on where Nax and Thel used to be. He noticed Thel's empty chair, and then extended the lighter down to see the untied ropes. Walking over to where Nax's chair should have been, he only said one thing.

"Sithspit."

The Weequay tried to run away, but Nax and Thel simultaneously punched him in the face, knocking him out cold. The pair quickly grabbed the Weequay to prevent him from hitting the ground hard, and instead set him down gently. Nax grabbed the lighter, and began rifling through the Weequay's jacket. Inside, aside from a personal datapad and some spare credits, which he pocketed, were two small holsters around the upper torso of the jacket. Nax grabbed them and opened them, revealing two EC-17 holdout blasters. Far from ideal, but they'd need to take what they can get. Nax also grabbed a combat knife, and raised it over the Weequay's throat, before slamming it down to the base and into his neck, killing him instantly.

"No witnesses." said flatly, looking up at Thel, offering him an EC-17, which he took. Both of them stood up, and started moving up the stairs, keeping their blasters at the ready. The door, evidently, had a non-standard sensor, as it detected them much sooner than it should have, and opened automatically, revealing a human with his back turned in what looked like a kitchen. The pair quickly raised their blasters and shot him in the back of the head, alerting everyone in the house to their presence.

Dashing forward and into cover behind a knocked over table, they heard shouting in the confusion, and multiple people running around. Two Weequay ran into the kitchen from a doorway on the left, armed with proper blasters. Nax and Thel fired three shots into the closest Weequay, two to the body and one to the head, dropping him, before the second one had the sense to get into cover, taking a couple blind, unaimed shots as he went. All three of which went through the middle of the table, but didn't hit Nax or Thel. Nax kept the blaster trained on the doorway as he reached down and grabbed the man's blaster pistol, a stock DL-44. Nax tossed Thel the EC-17, which he caught midair, and Nax pressed down on the DL-44's trigger. A red glow appeared around the muzzle, and the gun started vibrating, with the glow slowly growing, until it grew no more.

Taking hold of the DL-44 with both hands, he let go of the trigger, and a large blaster bolt went into the doorway, bouncing off at an angle, before there was a yell, and the sound of a body hitting the floor. Nax and Thel pushed forward, peeking the corner. The hallway seemed to be clear, so they moved in, with Thel dropping the EC-17s for a T21 rifle. A third Weequay jumped out as they were halfway across the hall, and caught Nax in the left shoulder with a blaster bolt, with Thel responding by shooting him in the head once, eviscerating it instantly. Nax tossed the DL-44 into his left hand and clutched his shoulder with his right hand. Thel quickly looked him over, before Nax moved ahead to an L shaped corner, and peeked around the corner.

About to move in, Thel stopped Nax, and waved at him to take up the rear. Nax nodded, and Thel moved in, T21 raised for possible contact. They proceeded to sweep the house, searching everything except for the front entrance without incident, and were prepared to breach the entrance. Thel gave a quick countdown, and both of them ran in, sweeping the room. Right in the center was the Rodian from downstairs, his stump bandaged, holding the Zeltron slave in an arm lock, and pointing a new blaster pistol at her head. She was visibly scared, and resisting the much taller Rodian, although with minimal effect.

"Tell me where you're keeping the girl," he said in a low, angry tone of voice. "and I won't kill this one." Thel and Nax raised their weapons, and the Zeltron flinched, while the Rodian pressed the blaster further into her head. "Five seconds."

Nax and Thel slowly put their fingers on their triggers.

"Four."

Both of them took aim.

"Three."

The pair took in a deep breath.

"Two."

Both of them shot at the same time, dropping the Rodian to the ground. The Zeltron fell back in fear, and rapidly pushed the dead Rodian's limbs off of her. She huddled into a fetal position, scared. Nax walked up to her and raised the DL-44 to her face, ready to fire, and she looked back up at him.

Something inside Nax clicked. In her eyes, he saw the same look of fear that Kyra had last night. He then noticed the shock collar around her neck, and suddenly, everything made sense. Hesitant to pull the trigger, he raised the blaster away, although the Zeltron was still scared out of her mind.

Nax felt a tap on his shoulder, and he looked over at Thel. "No witnesses, remember?"

He looked back down at the Zeltron. "She's a slave. Look, shock collar. Seen a few before, same design." he said, tapping it carefully, so as to not set it off.

"…Sithspit. What do we do with her?"

Tears started to flow from her eyes. "Please, don't kill me! They forced me to come down here, _to seduce you!_ " she pointed at Nax. "I'm a slave, like Kyra. They know how us Zeltrons are, so they forced me down here to try and get you to tell them where she is!"

The simple fact that she knew Kyra's name caught Nax's attention. "How did you-?"

The Zeltron's tears stopped, and she started quietly sobbing. "I was her cellmate. I helped her escape the ship we were on. I don't know what they were going to do to her, but they beat her harder than any other slave." she hid her face in her knees. "…even harder than the Wookies."

Nax and Thel stared at each other, unsure of what to do. Suddenly, her head shot up to look at them. "Please, you have to believe me!"

Nax pursed his lips, and then grimaced at the pain in his shoulder, before putting some pressure on it. "I… don't know. Very few would use their comrade as a meat shield like that, but then again… " he wandered. "Thel, I don't want to risk bringing her to Kyra. Would you do me a favor and keep her at your place?" he asked.

Thel looked at him incredulously. "You want me to risk my ass for this?"

"It'd mean a hell of a lot to me."

Thel pursed his lips, and looked down at the Zeltron. He exhaled, and then picked her up and brought her to her feet with a yelp. "T-thank you! You won't regret this, I swear!" she thanked. "I-if you talk to Kyra, mention my name to her. She'll back me up, honest!"

"And your name is…?" Nax inquired, waving his hand in a "go on" type of gesture.

"It's Lexi, and, uh, your weapons are in the corner there." Lexi pointed to a footlocker in the corner of the room. Nax headed over, opened it, and took out his bandolier, shotgun, and datapad. He mentally made a note to never ever record the location of anyone like Kyra in the future, not that he ever did in the first place. Nax also grabbed Thel's DC-15s pistol, and tossed it to him, which he caught and put in a holster. Slinging the shotgun over his shoulder and covering the bleeding cut, the three of them walked out.

The suns were just about to go down. They'd had been out a lot longer than they initially suspected. Regardless of time lost, the three of them headed towards Thel's house, with Nax intent on going back home.

* * *

Nax finally pulled in to the garage, powered down the speeder, and hopped out. Lexi had been left at Thel's under strict watch, and Nax headed back on his own. Luckily, nobody took his speeder or the stuff inside, but he didn't really feel like putting it away now. He felt like he'd just been trampled by an entire herd of banthas, and would much rather sort everything in the morning.

As he walked downstairs, he noticed that the lights were still on. Kyra must have forgotten to turn them off or something. Whatever.

A sudden pain shot through his shoulder, and Nax gasped, leaning against the wall and holding down on it to put some pressure on. Rubbing against the wall, he shut his eyes and started grunting, trying to get rid of the pain. Nax could sort of hear footsteps in front of him, and he opened one eye to see Kyra walking around the corner from the living room. "Hey, Na…" she started, and then stopped as she noticed the blast mark on his shoulder, the dripping blood, and Nax's half bloodied face.

Dropping whatever she was holding instantly, she ran forward, grabbed Nax, and dragged him into the living room, before pushing him onto the couch on his back with surprising strength. He looked up to see Kyra dashing back down the hall, heard her stop, turn a sink on for a few seconds, turned it off, and ran back in with a wet towel. She kneeled over where Nax was laying and immediately started wiping away furiously at the bloody area, occasionally pulling the towel back to check for any spots she had missed. She stopped, set the towel aside, and ran further back into the house, into the bathroom, before coming back with a bacta patch, a bandage roll, and some scissors. She took the patch out of its wrap and placed it over the cut. Maybe it'd heal into a nice scar.

Immediately taking Nax's duster and shirt off without saying a word, revealing the burned and red skin underneath, Kyra opened the package for the bandages, pulling them out, and began wrapping Nax's upper arm and shoulder, albeit poorly, but she did her best. About half of the bandage was left when she finished wrapping, and she snipped the end off, setting it in the packaging. Kyra and Nax both stared at each other.

"Thought I told you to stay in bed." Nax chuckled weakly.

Kyra rolled her eyes and ignored him. "What happened to you? You were gone for the whole day and you coming back looking like… this."

"Well, I helped Thel for some ammo, got kidnapped, almost gave your location up unwillingly, almost got shot, broke out, killed a few guys, DID get shot, wiped the laserbrains that kidnapped me out, and saved a slave."

Kyra sighed, and picked Nax up, throwing his arm over her shoulder, and carrying him to his room, setting him in bed on his right side. Nax looked up at her. "Hey, Kyra?"

"...Hmm?"

"Do you know any Zeltrons named Lexi?"

Kyra's eyes widened. "Yeah, why? Did you find her?" Nax nodded, and Kyra took a step back, shocked. "Where is she? Is she okay?" she asked frantically.

"She's fine. Thel has her. I didn't bring her here because I didn't think she was trustworthy. The last thing I want is a leak, and I'd actually have just killed her outright if she didn't mention you by name. Can't afford to leave any evidence behind if you can help it" he said, and Kyra brushed some hair out of her face, relieved.

"What did she tell you?"

"Just that they beat you harder than they beat the Wookies, that you were her cellmate, and that she helped you escape. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."

With that, Nax turned the light off, and immediately fell asleep. Kyra actually felt like collapsing right then and there, so she just kneeled down and rested her head against the mattress, falling asleep with him.

R5 saved the image to his memory banks, not saying anything so as to avoid being discovered.

* * *

TK-421, TK-205, TK-743, and TK-068 all stacked up against the door to the abandoned building. They'd been all off duty when the call came in that there'd been a shooting at the place, and since no other troopers were available, they got stuck with this blue milk run. "Stack up." 421's voice cracked through the vocoder.

"ROE?" 205 asked, opposite 421.

"Set blasters to stun. Gaffi wants live targets for interrogation. Next best thing is datapads, evidence, and bodies for forensics."

"Copy, Actual."

068 put his free hand on 205's shoulder, and 743 did the same to 421. "Breaching in five."

All four of them switched their E-11 flashlights on.

"Four."

205 prepped a sonic grenade.

"Three."

Their grips tightened on their blasters.

"Two."

Everyone tensed up.

"One!"

421 tricked the door and caused it to open, and 205 tossed the sonic grenade in, the door shutting behind it. They heard the nullified squeal of the grenade going off, and went in, blasters raised and set for stun. They flashed their lights around the darkened room. "Clear!" 421 announced.

"Clear." the other three said.

"Eyes and ears open, people! Keep your guns up for probable contact." 421 motioned for everyone to spread out across the room.

There was the sound of plastoid colliding with something fleshy. "Found something, sir." 743 said, shining his light on whatever he had just found. 421 looked over, and saw the outline of a Rodian. Dead. "Two blaster shots, judging by the penetration, I'd say a DL-44 and a…T21? Half the skull is missing on one side. Hand's also poorly bandaged." he shined the light further away, revealing a dropped DH-17 blaster and a discarded T21. "Yep, T21." he said as he shined the light in a different direction. "Looks like a pool of blood, not like bugface over here." he led the flashlight away, revealing a blood trail. "Someone was bleeding out, looks like."

"Search the body." 421 commanded, and 205 raised something from a footlocker.

"Found the '44!" he said, pleased with himself.

"Set it back where you found it."

"Yessir." 205 obeyed, carefully setting the blaster back where it was.

743 searched the Rodian's body, and pulled out a datapad. He turned it on and flicked through it. "Well?" 421 insisted.

"It's this Rodian's personal log. Seems that he and his buddies were all employed by a slaver, or pirate captain. Something like that. Mentions a missing slave girl that their boss is incredibly fixated on, and he goes on at length about a "Zeltron whore" they were forced to have with them to… seduce the person the girl was spotted with into giving up her location, looks like."

421 leaned over. "Anything else?"

"Mentions their ship and captain by name. The captain is Allo Lostur, and the ship is called the _Cranky Bantha_."

421 would have looked surprised if it weren't for the helmet covering his face. "Allo Lostur is a wanted Imperial fugitive with a death sentence in forty star systems. Gaffi will want to see this. Stow the datapad, we're continuing the search." he motioned to the door that led to the rest of the building. 421 shined his light at the base, and spotted the blood trail leading back that way.

The four man fireteam followed the blood trail, wary, alert, and weapons raised. They came to a long corridor, with a headless body and two discarded blasters at the corner. A single Defender blaster pistol was by his hands. The four of them cautiously approached, and noted the leathery skin. Weequay.

They turned to the left and saw the blood trail continuing down the hall and to the right, with another Weequay body slumped up against the wall. Continuing to move through the hall, they inched up to the body. Two EC-17 blasters were at his side, and looked like they had been thrown to the ground. The dead Weequay's fingers also looked like they had been holding on to a longblaster, most likely the T21 from earlier. 421 shined his light on the wall in front of him, and noticed a blast mark on an angled surface.

They proceeded into the kitchen, following the blood trail and carefully stepping over yet another Weequay corpse. Flanking around a table with several holes in it, they noticed a dead human, face down, and the blood trail leading down into the basement. Forming up, they carefully crept down stairs, trying not to make a sound. 743 shined his flashlight into an opening, lighting up several boxes, a chair, and another dead Weequay in a pool of his own blood. Around the base of the chair were two sets of rope, not tied to anything. The four men moved to check the body.

421 put two fingers around his throat. "Stabbed through the throat, must have been to the base. Probably cut the brain off from the rest of the body, killed him quick."

068 shined his light in the corner. "Sir?" he asked, trying to get 421's attention.

421 looked over and saw a broken water pipe, and a chair leaned up against it. There was some more rope on the floor, except one piece looked shredded in half. 421 then looked down near the first chair, and saw the pieces of a broken slug pistol, some green bloody chunks, and then a small red pool of blood that matched with the rest of the trail. The trail led to the water pipe, and wasn't straight like earlier, more like it was going in half circles.

"I'm pretty sure we can find out what happened here. Whoever was kidnapped must have been getting seduced by the Zeltron, the Rodian got impatient and tried to shoot them, the gun exploded and blew his hand off, a chunk of metal cut into the guy who left his blood everywhere, he moved his chair to the pipe, cut the rope, freed himself, ambushed the Weequay, killed him, and shot his way out."

"What about the Zeltron?"

421 rolled his head around. "Probably got her out of there. Either that, or she ran off. Anyways, let's get this stuff set for hauling to the garrison. I'll call in a speeder."

* * *

Kaz pressed down on her commlink. "Boss, we checked in with Team Two."

" _And?"_ Lostur said impatiently.

"All members are dead. Got here just as the Imps started hauling the bodies away, only just finished searching the place."

Kaz heard Lostur suck in air. _"And you DIDN'T engage them?"_ he seethed.

Holding her forehead in her hand, she sighed. "You can either have the girl and her little "guardian" on board soon, or you can have another team dead." she retorted.

Lostur exhaled loud enough for the commlink to pick it up. _"Fine, fair point. What about the Zeltron they had with them?"_

"Didn't see her getting hauled away by the Imps, and she wasn't inside. Probably still alive. Want us to look for her?"

Lostur snorted. _"No, I don't care about her. She's not as important as the girl. As a matter of fact, if you see her, kill her."_

"Got it, boss. We also managed to nab a blood sample, probably from Nax, but no datapads."

A sigh came from the other end of the commlink. _"It'll have to do. Get it tested first thing tomorrow."_ With that, the comm clicked off, and Kaz put her hand on the blaster she was carrying. She motioned for Bolthead and Dav to follow her back to the base.

* * *

TK-421 walked in to Gaffi's office and saluted, before handing his report in. He immediately took it, saluted back, and began scanning it. "Six bodies, one missing Zeltron, one or more missing kidnap victims with at least one wounded, and multiple weapons seized…" he mumbled, before his eyes widened. "…You found a datapad that named their commander and ship?"

421 nodded, helmet still on. "Yes, sir," his vocoder cracked. "Their commander is a Weequay named Allo Lostur, and their command ship is apparently a CR90 called the _Cranky Bantha_. I'm sure you're familiar with them."

Gaffi grimaced internally, but outwardly showed no emotion. "Very much so. Where is the datapad now?"

"Should be in the evidence locker, sir."

"Bring it to me. In the meantime, I'll have forensics do a run of the weapons and the blood sample you took. Dismissed."

TK-421 saluted and marched out of the room, while Gaffi sat back down and pondered his thoughts.

Allo Lostur.

The _Cranky Bantha_.

He'd thought the day would never come where he would have to hear those names again.

The memories of that accursed ship came flooding back, enveloping his mind like a Tatooine dust storm. His thoughts raced at the possibility of a repeat, but he pushed them aside. He was weak then, but now?

Now he had the advantage.

Just then, one of the stormtroopers guarding the evidence locker came in and handed him the datapad, before Gaffi dismissed him. He'd need to have a little chat with Imperial Intelligence later, but in the meantime, he flicked through the datapad, taking in every piece of information he could about what had changed with the Bantha, her crew, and the man in charge over the past 17 years.

* * *

 **That's the chapter. Just want to point something out, the TK-421 during the bit with the bucketheads is the same TK-421 from A New Hope.**

' **Till next time.**

 **-Tweak**


	4. Imperial Entanglements

**Sand racist got added to Battlefront 2 and uhh I'd say he's pretty powerful. Just yet the entire team into a deathpit in HVV at once lmao**

 **To Thunderbird29: I have a lot planned for Kyra, yeah.**

 **Anyways, read and review.**

* * *

Nax awoke to feel something warm resting on his right arm. He rolled his head over, and saw a white mess of hair on top of his arm. Kyra rolled her head over, exposing her face to Nax, still asleep, but smiling peacefully. Trying to move his arm, he found he lacked the strength, primarily because, well, his arm had fallen asleep.

Looking over to the corner, he spotted Arfive, silently observing the pair. The droid evidently noticed Nax looking at him, so he used his manipulator arm to wave, but otherwise said nothing. Nax tried to wave back with his free arm, but a sudden piercing sensation put an end to that.

Right, couldn't use that for the next few days.

Relaxing into the softness of the bed, he felt Kyra's weight lift from his arm. He looked over to see her stretching and yawning, and she slowly opened her eyes. She looked down where her head used to be, and then looked at Nax. "…Morning." she said, tired, but content.

"Morning." Nax responded, before sitting up in bed.

Yawning, Kyra sat in bed next to Nax, and leaned up against him, resting her head on his shoulder. "How's your arm doing?" she asked with considerable concern in her voice.

Nax tried moving his arm around again, and flinched at the stinging sensation. "I can move it, but it hurts like hell. Probably gonna be out of action for, I dunno, two days?" he shrugged. "Maybe less if I want to tough the pain out. What about you?"

Sitting up straight, Kyra began to feel around her body, touching where Nax had bandaged her. Se pressed down a few times, showing no reaction. "Seems fine?" she pressed down on her stomach. "It's a bit numb and I can't feel in some places, but I'm fine otherwise." she said, before resting her head back on Nax's shoulder. "…I'll get these bandages off in a bit, then I'll make you breakfast," Kyra looked up at Nax. "Er... can we just… sit like this? At least for a little while longer?" Kyra nervously asked.

Pursing his lips, Nax rolled his head to the side. "…Sure..?"

Wrapping her arm around Nax's back, Kyra pulled herself closer to him.

* * *

The garrison was abuzz with activity this morning. Junior officers were running around, trying to finish whatever they hadn't yesterday, or were running around with new orders. Some of the new recruits were fumbling around with their training blasters, right in front of their drill instructor, an aged Clone veteran, from the 41st Elite Corps, if Gaffi's memory served. All eyes were on him, and everyone who noticed him took a second to salute, before returning to their duties.

As Gaffi walked into his office, his XO, Wilhem saluted him. "Good morning, sir." he greeted. Wilhem was a veteran of the Clone Wars, much like Gaffi, but despite them being around the same age, Wilhem looked far, far older. His sharp, angular features, graying hair, and scarred skin actually made him look closer to a battle hardened Grand Moff Tarkin, and he'd been confused by the recruits for the Grand Moff on more than one occasion, though he learned to take it in stride.

Gaffi saluted back. "At ease."

Wilhem relaxed, setting his hands on his desk. "Sir, Forensics came back with fingerprints and the blood sample from the building. I also dug up a report from one of the stormtrooper patrols that you may want to look at. It's related to the sudden arrival of Lostur in the system."

Gaffi nodded once. "Thank you, Wilhem. Now, has Imperial Intelligence decided to give me the time of day?"

Wilhem nodded. "Yes, sir. They'll run the planetary scan you requested "soon," whenever that is."

Gaffi laughed. "Of course, I expected nothing less from the Imperial Bureaucracy. Now, did you have anything else for me?"

Quickly checking his datapad, he turned back to Gaffi. "No, sir."

"As you were." Gaffi said, before heading towards his desk and sitting down. He picked up the datapad that had been left on his desk by Wilhem, turned it on, and flicked to the report from the patrol.

 _Tatooine Imperial Garrison Incident Report #466.21b_

 _At fourteen hundred hours, last Primeday, Stormtrooper Patrol Team 22, consisting of TK-302, TK-421, TK-032, TK-912, and TK-654, was returning to the Garrison at the end of patrol duties. At the front entrance, they encountered one Trandoshan male, one Human male, and one Weequay female harassing one masked Human female sitting in a parked X-34 Landspeeder, identification plates indicate the owner being one Nax Strag, a licensed bounty hunter who was turning in a bounty on Vark Rurmiid at the time. When questioned by TK-421 as to their intentions at the garrison, the group refused to answer. When TK-421 repeated himself, the Trandoshan attempted to grab the woman from the speeder, exclaiming "Just reclaiming our property!" before being shot and killed by TK-421. The Human and the Weequay escaped into the crowd, unharmed._

Gaffi flicked down to see the corpse of the deceased Trandoshan on an autopsy table. Underneath it was a line of text that read out:

 _Unidentified Trandoshan Joh Da, confirmed nickname Slev, refer to seized datapad 470.24-E1 in evidence locker._

Gaffi moved his chair back and pulled the referenced datapad, the one TK-421 and his squad had seized yesterday. Turning it on, he checked the journal function.

 _Kaz, Bolthead, and Slev found that slave whore that got off the Bantha today. Bitch was hiding in plain sight, probably would've walked right by her if Slev wasn't there. Unfortunately, the moron inside of him tried to grab her in front of the fragging Imps, and he got shot for his trouble. Not a big loss in my opinion, but who cares?_

Gaffi flicked further ahead.

 _Dav and his buddies got double crossed, Kaz and Bolthead found his sorry ass, and found out that the girl was working as a mercenary or something. Turns out, she's got her own little guardian angel! Ha! He's tall, got pale skin, short black hair and a stubble, usually wears a duster and big stupid hat. Name's Nax, according to one of Dav's girlfriends. Lostur sent down that Zeltron whore for us to use if we ever find him._

The entry ended there, and Gaffi flicked to the most recent entry.

 _I can't believe our luck! I found that Nax kid talking to one of the gun dealers in the bazaar. I trailed them all across the city, got the rest of the team in position, and clubbed them both! They're both sitting in the basement right now, out cold and tied up. They must've been friends or something, cause when we raided the place we found tons of ammo and not a credit to spare. Found a ton of 6-2 Slugs though, saves me the cash on resupply. We'll use the Zeltron whore on him, get the other whore, be back on the Cranky Bantha within a day, and Allo'll pay us so we can rub it in that bitch Kaz's face. Not sure what to do about Nax and his buddy though, maybe kill them both in front of the whore to set an example. Ha!_

Setting the datapad down, Gaffi picked up the one left by the forensics team.

 _We've finished analyzing the weapons and corpses brought in by TK-421's fireteam. Fingerprinting confirms that all weapons in the building were handled by the deceased, however, the recovered T21 and one of the EC-17s have the fingerprints of one Thel Novar, a licensed weapons dealer who usually sets up in the bazaar near Kerner Plaza. The other EC-17 and DL-44 carry the fingerprints of Nax Strag, a bounty hunter that we took a blood sample of a month ago as part of the IPKC process, one that also recently turned in Vark Rurmiid. In addition, the blood samples taken from the trail match perfectly with those we took for Nax Strag. The corpses are in the morgue if you need to take a closer look._

Gaffi put the datapad back on his desk, and scratched the side of his face, trying to decide what to do. Lostur and his men were obviously after an escaped slave, two if he counted the missing Zeltron. That same escaped slave was also probably the woman in Nax's landspeeder, the one the Trandoshan tried to grab.

As competent as his Stormtroopers were, they'd never be able to get a solid lead on Lostur, let alone a way onto the Bantha. He would need bait, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. "Wilhem!" he shouted, and the officer looked behind himself. "Have my shuttle ready in fifteen minutes." he said as he pulled out the registry datapad, looking for the Strag homestead's coordinates.

"Yes, sir."

* * *

Nax held out the detached shotgun pump as Kyra carefully used a fusion cutter to remove the foregrip. She was being incredibly careful to not slice Nax's fingers off, or worse, his entire hand. Finally, the foregrip fell to the ground, and Kyra picked it up. "I… still don't get the point of doing this." Kyra said, examining the severed foregrip.

Nax flipped the pump, set it on the ground, took the foregrip from Kyra, and then set that on the end that would face the ground when re-attached to the shotgun. "It's to make it more ergonomic." Nax responded. "Arfive?" he said, and the droid chipped and whirred, before he pulled out his arc welder and began to weld the foregrip into its new position.

"But how?" Kyra asked, still confused.

When he was sure that Arfive had welded it into position, he stood up and handed Kyra the scatter gun. "Hold it in your right hand."

"Okay…?"

"Now, put your left hand right about… here." Nax said, pointing towards the side where the pump went. "Now, rotate your hand so that your thumb is facing the gun." he continued, and Kyra did exactly that. "Try pumping it."

Kyra tried, and she kept fumbling around with it. "Wow, that's… really stupid. Why would they design it like that?"

Nax shrugged with his right arm. "Blame Araykd. They made the initial design." Nax tapped underneath the gun with his finger. "Anyways, what I'm trying to do is make it so that foregrip piece sits _under_ the gun. Try holding it here?"

Putting her hand under the gun, Kyra tried to pump it again, this time not fumbling with it nearly as much, and she visibly had an easier time. "Ooohhh, I see!" Kyra said, pleased with herself for finally understanding. "It's harder to do from the side than from the bottom, isn't it?"

Nax nodded, and Kyra smiled at herself. Before they could continue talking any further, they heard a… ship engine? Kyra set the gun back on the workbench, and both of them ran outside to see a grey, rectangular shuttle with three wings forming a lambda symbol flying overhead. It set down not too far from the front entrance, cockpit facing the house, and Arfive came out too, curious as to what was going on.

A boarding ramp came down from underneath the cockpit, and four Stormtroopers came out carrying longblasters, flanking an Imperial officer. "Nax Strag?" he shouted. "It's Captain Mazz Gaffi, from the Imperial Garrison in Mos Eisley! I have some things to discuss with you!"

Nax, Arfive, and Kyra all went back inside, holding the door open for the captain and his men, who calmly walked inside, blasters at ease. "Gaffi? What's this all about?" Nax asked as he headed downstairs.

Gaffi stared at Nax, his Stormtrooper entourage obediently following him. "The Empire has many eyes and ears, and it's come to our attention that you're being… targeted, for lack of a better word. Specifically, we believe that she," he pointed to Kyra. "..is the one being targeted."

Nax glanced back at him as they entered the living room, and then at Kyra.

Everyone except for the Stormtroopers and Arfive sat down, with Arfive remaining stationary near Kyra, while the Stormtroopers stood behind Gaffi, who leaned in. "Do you have _any idea_ who it is that's targeting you?" he asked, making his tension and concern known.

"Slavers, right?" Nax responded, leaning back into the couch, almost knocking a glass of water over with his arm.

"That's only part of what they are. The person, or, well, people chasing after you are part of a band of marauders, pirates, slavers, and every other brand of degenerate in the Outer Rim known as Lostur's Marauders. Their leader, Allo Lostur has the death sentence in forty star systems. Not _once_ has he been brought down in over twenty years." Gaffi leaned in closer. "And he's delivered himself right to the Empire's doorstep."

Nax raised an eyebrow as he took a sip of water from the glass he almost knocked over. "Okay, so you came to me to ask me to hunt this guy down?"

Gaffi nodded. "That was part of the reason why I came here, yes."

Nax continued drinking. "What's his bounty?"

"One hundred thousand credits, dead, one hundred fifty thousand."

Nax almost spat his drink out and had to physically restrain himself, Arfive went _crazy_ , and Kyra actually shot up straight. "There's no way that's the real bounty." she said, totally shocked.

Gaffi fished around and pulled out a datapad. "It is."

 _WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE: ALLO LOSTUR_

There was a picture of a Weequay with a heavily scarred face. He was wearing a combat helmet, had green goggles on, and was missing an eye, the left one, to be specific.

 _WANTED FOR ENSLAVEMENT, DEALING IN SLAVES, WAR CRIMES, SMUGGLING OF ILLEGAL CONTRABAND, CRIMES AGAINST THE EMPIRE, ASSAULT OF IMPERIAL OFFICIALS, MURDER OF IMPERIAL OFFICIALS, ASSAULT AND BATTERY, ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON, CONSPIRING TO CONSORT WITH INSURGENTS, ARSON, FIRING ON IMPERIAL VESSELS, KIDNAPPING, RANSOM…_

The list went on and on, and was incredibly lengthy, longer than any of them had expected.

 _BOUNTY: 100,000 CREDITS DEAD, 150,000 ALIVE_

Nax whistled in astonishment, and then looked over at Kyra. "That's more than enough to buy that starfighter and get us off the planet, Kyra." he then looked over to Gaffi. "…What's the catch?"

Gaffi took in a deep breath. "You will be put into the Imperial Witness Protection program. All Stormtroopers in Mos Eisley will know who you two are, why you're important, and that anyone going after you is probably working for Lostur. In addition, you'll also be working exclusively for me to take out certain enemies of the Empire. I'm offering a three thousand credit bounty on each one you bring in, five thousand if it turns out they're a member of Lostur's Marauders, six thousand for insurgent leaders."

Nax leaned forward, visibly thinking about accepting it. "Believe me," Gaffi suddenly said, " I want this scum brought down hard, and my plan involves you two helping, but if you don't want to, then I won't force you two to. That said," he turned to Kyra. "I can't leave here without knowing a few more things; you are the first person we know of to have gotten off of the _Cranky Bantha_ alive. Can you tell us anything about the situation up there?"

Kyra briefly froze up. "I… uh…" she stumbled, before brushing some hair out of her face. She was visibly tense, staring off into the distance, right through Gaffi. "They…" Gaffi waved his hand, gesturing for her to speak. Her head sunk, and Kyra stared down at the floor. Arfive let out a long, sad beep, and rolled up to Kyra, beeping at her, trying to get through to her. Kyra reached out and pet Arfive's head, before looking up at Gaffi. "…I killed… twenty of them, roughly. That was before I got off the ship."

Gaffi narrowed his eyes at her. "Miss… Kyra, is it? I've no time for…" he stopped himself short as Arfive suddenly started playing a hologram on the table in front of everyone. Through the blue filter, they could clearly see an oil slick being spat out from just below the camera in a corridor. The camera then rotated around to Kyra in her slave rags, and the hologram played Arfive's distinctive chirping. There was a loudening sound of multiple footsteps on the durasteel floors, and then Arfive moved closer to Kyra, with the camera turned to the oil slick. Multiple men came running, and slipped on the slick, falling down. The camera then picked up audio of a blaster firing, and the slick caught fire, burning twenty some people alive, and the recording ended. "…games." Gaffi finished, astonished. "…So you did." Arfive chirped and whirred, proud of himself for helping Kyra kill her pursuers. His eyes raced around, and he pulled out a datapad, jotting down some things onto it.

Kyra stared blanky, not at Gaffi, but _through_ him. "I don't remember much of what was going on up there… Lexi, my cellmate, was on the ship longer than I was. You'd probably get more information out of her than you would me."

"…Lexi…?"

"My Zeltron cellmate. Nax got her away from them when they brought her to the surface, and she's staying with his friend, Thel."

"I-" Gaffi started. but suddenly, his commlink buzzed in his ear, and he pressed down on it. "Yes, Wilhem, what is it?"

…

"I'll be right there." he said, and he pulled his fingers off the commlink. "So sorry to cut this short, but something important has come up that requires my attention. If you do decide to accept my offer, come see me at the Garrison."

With that, Gaffi got up and left with his Stormtroopers. Nax and Kyra both waited until they heard the shuttle take off to even consider talking. There was still an uncomfortable silence between the two, with the only sounds in the living room being Arfive's mechanical whirrs and chirps.

Kyra was the first to speak. "…I… don't think we should take his offer."

Leaning back into the couch, Nax took a sip from his glass. "Why not?"

Kyra's hair fell in front of her face as she retreated into the scared, escaped slave she was a few days ago. "I don't want to be near his men any longer than I have to." Moving over to Kyra and brushing her hair out of her face, Nax made eye contact. She was visibly scared at the prospect of having to bring Lostur down. "…What if we get captured? I'll be thrown back into slavery, you'll be killed…" Kyra lowered her head. "…I just want to leave as soon as possible."

Nax pushed her chin up to maintain eye contact. "Kyra," he said to get her attention. "If we leave without putting him down, and if he's relentless as that bounty suggests, what makes you think he won't come after you when we're off Tatooine?" Nax questioned, and Kyra's eyes started racing around. "If we leave without putting him down, who's to say he won't track you down and throw you back into slavery?" he put his hands on her shoulders. "With that bounty, we'll have more than enough money for ourselves after I buy the starfighter." Shaking her head, Kyra broke eye contact, hiding her face behind her hair. "Besides, you heard what he said, the Stormtroopers in Mos Eisley will know we're under protection. They'll shoot at Lostur's men if they see us getting attacked. I'd rather have Stormtroopers backing us up than nothing at all."

"I know, I just…" she shrugged, defeated. "…don't know if I want to expose myself like that." she said, before resting her head on Nax's shoulder, and he flinched at the sudden pressure on his injured arm, but it wasn't significant, so he ignored it.

"You don't have to decide now, we're not going anywhere for the next few days. I won't force you if you don't want to." Nax said quietly, in a comforting tone of voice, and Kyra made a sound that sounded like grateful acceptance.

* * *

Looking over the planetary scan of Tatooine in the operations center of the Garrison, Gaffi kept seeing the same thing, which was to say, nothing at all.

" _Where? Where is it?"_ he thought to himself, hastily looking over the hologram of Tatooine and the space around it.

"Something the matter, sir?" one of his Stormtrooper guards asked. "You look troubled."

Gaffi glanced over at him. "Do you see any ships in orbit?" he asked. Maybe the Stormtrooper had seen something he himself had missed.

The Stormtrooper leaned in close, and scanned the hologram. He took his left hand off of his longblaster and pointed in the air above Mos Eisley's geographic location. "I think I see one here, sir." he said, and he tapped a small speck. The hologram of Tatooine disappeared, and a different hologram, one of a Corellian Corvette, appeared.

The corvette was obviously a retrofitted CR70, using the aftermarket Vanguard c20 suite that CEC started offering around the time the CR90 came around. The rear engines bore the same half cylindrical shielding that wrapped from the dorsal part of the ship to the underbelly, except someone had elongated them to fully cover the engines instead of only partly, as well as adding small "spikes" that stretched out roughly to the airlocks. Deterring boarders, maybe?

Branded on both sides of the engine shield was a skull shaped like a Stormtrooper helmet, with a longblaster and vibrosword directly behind it. In addition, it had two quad turbolaser batteries along the spine of the ship, something that would put an extreme amount of stress on the power output of the CR70, even a Vanguard, unless, of course, the power source was a superior aftermarket model, which it probably was.

Along the port and starboard sides of the ship were four quad laser cannons. Not turbolasers, regular laser cannons for anti-fighter purposes. They were split up and set along the sides, two facing to port, two facing to starboard. Underneath the ship, docked to the ventral airlock, was a YT-2400 freighter, although it was too small to be able to make out any specific details. Gaffi then noticed some faded Aurebesh script below the laser cannons. The script read out "THE CRANKY BANTHA" in what was probably dark red, judging by how it looked like it was dripping down off the hull of the ship, maybe to mimic blood, maybe just a poor paint job. He then noticed a faded "'S CALL" at the end, almost invisible, but still there.

Moving to the front of the ship, Gaffi made note of the two laser cannons sticking out of the front, as well as what appeared to be a concussion missile tube underneath the bridge; strange choices for a corvette, but still noteworthy additions to the already considerable firepower the ship was carrying.

Tapping on the hologram, an information readout appeared.

 _/ SHIP CLASS: CORELLIAN CR70 CORVETTE, SCAN INDICATES VANGUARD C20 RETROFIT FEATURES/_

 _/ REPORTING NAME: KAZ'S PRIDE /_

 _/ ARMAMENT: QUAD TURBOLASERS (x2), MANUFACTURER UNKNOWN, QUAD LASER CANNONS (x4), MANUFACTURER UNKNOWN, SHIPCRACKER CONCUSSION MISSILE LAUNCHER (x1), MANUFACTURER UNKNOWN, CORELLIAN ENGINEERING CORPORATION AG-1G LASER CANNON (x2) /_

So that was it, then. The _Cranky Bantha_ really was in orbit, and it slipped right under Gaffi's nose. Closing his right hand, Gaffi put it to his mouth, thinking about how best to proceed. An immediate attack would be tantamount to suicide, the laser cannons would chew any TIEs apart in seconds, not to mention the missile launchers and lack of any support ships.

Calling in an entire fleet was out of the question, he was but a simple garrison commander, they'd laugh him right back to square one, or court martial him if they did actually send a fleet out and Lostur ran away.

Having Stormtroopers come down on Lostur's men would be an even worse idea; Lostur wasn't stupid, he'd know the Empire was after him and would bug out of the system, blowing Gaffi's chance at bringing him in.

As he pondered what to do, something suddenly came to mind; Lostur wouldn't be able to run away if his ship was stuck in the system. Gaffi pressed a few buttons on the hologram table, and the hologram of the _Cranky Bantha_ disappeared, replaced by a sort of holographic menu. The captain flicked through several names, along the likes of _Aggressor_ , _Hydra_ , _Cerberus_ , and _Assaulter_ , until he found what he was looking for;

 _Sandtrap_.

His ace in the hole.

Gaffi dismissed his Stormtroopers from the operations center, and prepared to make a call.

* * *

Swirling a glass of juri juice in his right hand, Lostur rested his head on his left hand, practically bored to tears since the bridge was all quiet. Kaz and her team were due to check in soon, hopefully with something good from the blood sample.

His Twi'lek slave could tell he was bored, and so she started trying to seduce him, posing in various suggestive ways, always making sure he could see just a _little bit more_ of her than he normally would, or rubbing her skin _just_ a bit longer against him.

Lostur was actually about to get up and take her to his quarters, when the commlink went off in his ear, and she backed off. instinctively, returning to the side of his chair.

Before he had a chance to speak, Kaz cut in. _"Boss, we 'ot the blood 'ested."_

"And?"

" _Only got a surname. It's Strag."_

Lostur gulped the remainder of his juri juice down. "Strag, huh?" he said, before pushing the Twi'lek further away from himself. That name carried some bitter, angry feelings with it for Lostur, but he wasn't sure why. _"_ Well, in that case, that was our last real lead, we're flying blind again. If you can, find the Zeltron. She might know where the slave went." Lostur ordered, twirling his slave's lekku around idly.

The previously quiet bridge suddenly exploded with a lot of shouting and yelling, startling the slave girl, causing her to jump, but her chain kept her tied to Lostur's chair. _"What the 'ell is going on up there?!"_ Kaz demanded to know.

One of the bridge crew ran up to him. "S-sir! Something big's coming out of hyperspace!" he shouted and stammered, and Lostur got up, running to the front viewport. The airless, lifeless void showed no sign of changing, the only things preventing it from being pitch black being Tatooine itself, and the twinkling stars of the Arkanis sector.

That was, of course, until a ship came out of hyperspace.

A Star Destroyer, to be exact.

Lostur blinked twice, and then squinted to make sure he was seeing right. Sure enough, there was an Imperial Star Destroyer, within view of his ship, that had just hyperspaced into the system. He'd tangled with his fair share of Venators in the past, but never an Imperial Star Destroyer. _"Boss?!"_ Kaz shouted into her commlink, as if reminding him that she was still there.

"We've got problems. A Star Destroyer just jumped into the system." he squinted, and then noticed three Arquitens-class light cruisers sitting in its shadow. Lostur also noticed four symmetrical balls that poked through the hull, on both the dorsal and ventral part of the ship. "Sithspit! Scratch that, we've got bigger problems. It's an Interdictor, it's got escorts!" he yelled, mentally cursing himself for not fleeing from the system beforehand, and instead simply letting the teams do their job. Lostur turned back to the bridge crew that were still at their stations. "Is it doing anything?!"

One of the crew who was monitoring the power output of the Interdictor half turned to the front of the bridge, facing Lostur. "No, sir! Power levels seem normal!"

"Weapons?"

"Not charging, sir!"

Lostur quietly breathed a sigh of relief, but whatever he was about to say, he was interrupted by another crewmember. "I.. Captain, sir… with all due respect," he nervously said, afraid of retribution. "…we don't know if they're here for us; it could simply be a routine patrol."

Crossing his arms, Lostur turned back to the viewport. "Exactly. Glad to see _someone_ on this fragging ship kept their brains," he growled, angrily looking over the crew, "..but I would rather be safe than dead." he finished, and then pressed down back on the commlink. "Kaz, begin Communication Protocol Delta."

Kaz didn't respond, and the commlink clicked off. _"Smart girl."_ he thought, and then grabbed a nearby intercom. "Attention all pirates, slavers, and other business associates on my ship! An Interdictor class Star Destroyer has entered the system with escorts! They're not doing anything right now, but running away isn't exactly possible, so we're initiating Communication Protocol Delta and waiting for them to move on! Not a single transmission is to be sent off of this ship, and I'll kill anyone that does!" he yelled, before hanging it back up.

One of the bridge crew still staring out at the viewport looked at him like he was crazy.

* * *

Jace Weyland stood proudly on the bridge of the _Sandtrap_ , surrounded by his bridge officers, arms behind his back and chest held high. He was a young officer in his mid twenties, and looked very much like a greenhorn. He wasn't as experienced as many of his senior officers, nor was he a veteran of the Clone Wars like his father before him. He didn't even become captain of the _Sandtrap_ through demonstration of leadership ability or skill as a captain, no, he became captain through nepotism from his mother's connections. That's not, of course, to say that he wasn't a competent leader; he'd more than managed to prove himself to the crew. He just became captain in a… less than ideal way.

As he looked around, he saw all officers on deck working diligently at their stations. A year ago, they would have been staring at him like dumbfounded children, or ignoring orders, but now they were a tightly knit crew, working as efficiently as an the crew of an Interdictor-class could.

While catching pirates and occasionally helping put down insurgent strikes in space was part of the job of an Interdictor's crew, given the gravity well generators, everything he had accomplished in the year since becoming captain of the _Sandtrap_ felt like it hinged on this one moment; catching Allo Lostur and the crew of the _Cranky Bantha_ alive.

Lostur was a wanted criminal since the time of the Republic. As Jace walked back towards the bridge holocomm, one of the bridge crew at the sensor terminals got his attention. "Captain, sir! We've spotted our target! What are your orders?" he asked.

Leaning over his shoulder, Weyland looked at the terminal. On screen was a Corellian CR70, clearly retrofitted with the Vanguard C20 suite, something a lot more common with poorer pirates who couldn't afford a CR90. What caught Jace's eye, though, was the armament. Two dorsal quad turbolasers, four quad laser cannons split on the starboard and port sides of the ship, two forward facing laser cannons, and a ventral missile launcher. While the _Sandtrap_ WAS based on the Imperial Star Destroyer, and could probably take a good beating from the ship with the gravity wells off, the Arquitens escorts might not fare so well. Attached to the ventral part of the ship was a YT-2400, of far less concern than the armament.

"Keep tracking that ship. If they try to jump into hyperspace, turn the gravity wells on and engage the tractor beams." he ordered, locking eyes on the crewman.

"Yes, sir."

Jace walked to the ship holocomm, pressed a button on the terminal, and the holographic image of Mazz Gaffi appeared. Gaffi had known Jace's father and served with him during the Clone Wars. As a matter of fact, the whole reason he was in the system was due to Gaffi being the only reason his father lived to see the end of the war. Jace instinctively saluted, and Gaffi saluted back. _"Glad to see you got my message, Jace."_

"It's not an issue, sir. I was just in the area when I got your call." Jace replied respectfully. "The _Sandtrap_ and her escorts are at your command."

Gaffi cracked a smile. _"Drop the formalities, Jace. I know your family well enough that you don't need to talk to me like I'm the Grand Moff himself."_ he said casually, almost uncharacteristically so. _"Has your crew spotted the Cranky Bantha?"_

Jace nodded. "Yes, sir. We picked it up on our sensors as soon as we entered the system." he responded, refusing to drop the formal attitude expected of him. He was the captain of an Interdictor, after all.

Gaffi jokingly rolled his eyes and smirked. _"Polite as always, Jace."_

"It's my job, sir."

Gaffi coughed loud enough for the holocommunicator to pick it up. _"Regardless, I called you here because of Lostur. We both know how dangerous he is. Did he try and jump out of the system when you arrived?"_

"No, sir."

"… _Interesting. Maybe he thinks you're a routine patrol?"_

"Maybe. That wouldn't be the first time this has happened. That said, I have the _Sandtrap_ monitoring their systems. If they try to jump, we'll know and interdict them, and then bring them in with a tractor beam."

" _Glad to see you taking the initiative, Jace, but we'll need to formulate a battle plan for when we try to bring them in."_

"Yes, sir."

The two of them would go back and forth about tactics for hours on how best to bring the _Cranky Bantha_ and Lostur in. Suggested tactics included waiting for the YT-2400 to land on the surface, ambushing the crew, and then sneaking on board with a boarding party, launching all TIE/Ins and 8 TIE/sas in the fleet, disabling the weapons, and then going in with TIE/brs on the port and starboard airlocks. Another suggested strategy was simply pummeling the ship with turbolaser fire until it was disabled, using the tractor beams to hold it in place, and then using TIE/brs to board it.

Eventually, the two of them did come up with a strategy for how to bring Lostur in.

* * *

Thel turned away from his ammo bench and grabbed some more propellant off the counter. Sitting on the couch looking right at him was Lexi; handcuffed, but otherwise free to move around. Thel started mixing another batch of death stick ammo, pouring the propellant in, and then adding some of the Tibanna sludge, before beginning to stir. "Hey," she suddenly said. "When'll Kyra be here?"

Thel continued mixing. "Probably not for a while." he said, not taking his eyes off of the mixture. "Nax got shot up pretty bad, so I'd imagine they intend on staying home for a while."

Lexi remained silent, watching him make the ammo. "…What are you making?"

"Special slugthrower ammo."

She raised an eyebrow. "People still use slugthrowers?"

"Plenty of people still do."

"…Why?"

Thel smacked the spoon against the bowl to shake some of the mixture out, and then smelled it. Satisfied, he set the spoon down, and walked into the living room, sitting next to Lexi, and he threw his hands behind the couch. "Slugthrowers have a lot of advantages over blasters."

"…Like…?"

Thel cracked his fingers. "Well, for starters, slugs aren't nearly as visible. You need to have tracer ammo loaded to get anywhere close to blaster visibility. They can also be suppressed more easily than a blaster."

"So then why does the Empire use blasters instead of slugthrowers?"

"Because blasters are better for infantry. The main advantage blasters offer is the higher ammo capacity. An assault slugthrower's magazine is something like, thirty rounds? For about the same weight in a blaster rifle, you can get five hundred shots or so out of a standard cartridge. It's a lot more cost efficient."

"Really, now? When I was training to become a gunsmith, I asked about slugthrowers, and the Twi'lek teaching me discarded them wholesale, so I thought they were kinda just… bad."

Thel raised an eyebrow. "You were training to become a gunsmith?"

"Mhm. Last time I had any practice was… five months ago?"

Thel pursed his lips. "Was that when you were captured?"

Lexi frowned and nodded. "Yeah," she looked around at the various weapons littering Thel's walls and furniture. "You sure seem to know your weapons." she commented, admiring the work.

"'Know'?" Thel asked, a bit insulted. "I practically _breathe_ weapons. I've done everything from simple repair jobs on slugthrowers to building entirely custom bodies for military blasters. It's my _lifeblood_ , and I treat each one like I would one of my kids."

Lexi's eyes widened and surprise, and she smiled. "…You wouldn't happen to be taking on an apprentice, would you?"

Chuckling, Thel scratched the side of his face. "Maybe. I don't trust you enough to let you go free, let alone let you handle my weapons, but if you gain my trust later, I _might_ consider taking you on."

Before they could go any further with their conversation, they were interrupted by a few raps on the door. "Hello? Is Thel Novar here? It's Captain Mazz Gaffi."

Right. Gaffi. The guy running the Imperial Garrison. Thel cleared his throat, and prepared his standard response for Imperials wanting to talk to him.

"Piss off and come back with a warrant!" he yelled, and he caught Lexi snickering at how blunt he was. None of Thel's illegal weapons were out, he always kept those locked up in case of a surprise inspection, but the ammo might raise some suspicion.

"We're not here for an arrest." Gaffi yelled back.

"I very much doubt that!"

"We're here to see you regarding your friend Nax, as well as recent events, including one Zeltron who we found missing!"

Thel looked down at Lexi, and she motioned with her head for him to open the door. He stood up, opened the door, and peeked out. Outside of his house was Gaffi staring at him, as well as two Stormtrooper escorts. "Come in." Thel flatly said, opening the door fully.

As soon as the three of them walked in, Gaffi pinched his nose. _"_ What is that _smell_?" he asked, sounding confused and disgusted. He then looked over the couch and saw Lexi sitting there, staring expectantly at him. "Ah, you must be Lexi. May we have a seat to explain why we're here?"

Thel quickly scanned his chairs. "Yeah, sure. Just watch where you sit." he said, before unnecessarily vaulting over his own couch and returning to where he was. Gaffi and the two Stormtroopers sat down opposite Lexi and Thel, although the Stormtroopers fumbled with their uncomfortable armor.

"She already knows why we're here," Gaffi said, gesturing to Lexi, "but as for you, you're an outsider. Allow us to clue you in," he cleared his throat. "Your Zeltron friend here, we believe, is a wanted slave by one Allo Lostur."

"…Who?" Thel asked, and without being commanded to, Gaffi produced a datapad with Lostur's bounty. "…Holy…" was all Thel could muster to say. The bounty itself was impressive enough, but the crimes committed by Lostur made him think twice about keeping Lexi with him. They actually made what would happen if he didn't pay his debts look _enjoyable_.

"Lostur is a known slaver, pirate, smuggler, et cetera et cetera. She," he gestured to Lexi, "is most likely wanted by Lostur and his crew."

Thel blinked a few times. "Ignoring the obvious of _why_ they would want an escaped slave back, why do you think they're after her?"

"Most likely, because they're looking for another slave, Kyra." he said, before producing a different datapad. "Your activities haven't exactly gone unnoticed, Thel." he glanced at Lexi, then back to Thel. "We were investigating a discharge incident yesterday, and found a bloodbath, tons of weapons lying around, plus a large blood trail. We took samples, collected evidence, and forensics ran through everything. Both Nax's and your own fingerprints came back with the results, plus Nax's blood." Gaffi explained, turning the datapad on and tossing it to Thel, which he caught midair.

Looking at the datapad, Thel's eyes widened. "…Nax didn't tell me… any of this. I thought he had just upset the wrong people by not paying his debts or something."

"Yes, I was afraid of that." Gaffi frowned, and turned to Lexi. "Lexi, ma'am, would you mind explaining to us everything you know about Lostur's purpose here?"

Lexi sat up straight, fully attentive. "Sure?" she said, unsure, before clearing her throat. "Lostur was here to pick up some more slaves for… a pretty big sale on Zygerria, I think. A week before, Kyra, the slave they're looking for, and the one with," she turned her head to Thel. "…Nax, right?" she asked, and Thel nodded. "Right, Nax. A week before the ship came up over Tatooine, they kind of just threw Kyra into my cell, unconscious. When she came to, she was totally delirious, and I helped her as best I could. When we finally got to Tatooine, I managed to… seduce one of the guards into getting close so I could knock him out and take the keys to the cell."

"…Seduce?" Gaffi asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I used my natural pheromones to put him in a sort of trance state where he would do what I asked. Regardless, he fell down with the keys out of reach, so I thought we were done for until one of the R5 units they kept with the slaves felt sympathetic and let her out."

Gaffi raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. "You didn't run?"

Lexi shook her head. "No. If I had run, they'd have beaten the slaves as punishment. Instead, they just chose to punish me by forcing me to come down and bring her back."

"…I see." Gaffi said, jotting some things down on another datapad. "Now, do you know why they're after her?"

Lexi stretched her limbs and yawned. "I'm not privy to the details, _buuut_ I remember overhearing some of the guards talking about how she was "important," probably was going to be the main attraction for the sale." Lexi said, before stopping to scratch her arm with what little space she had to move her hands around. "No idea _why_ she's so important; she didn't seem to remember who she was, and the guards didn't know either."

"An amnesiac? …Interesting…" Gaffi commented.

"Yeah, from what I heard, Lostur was driving himself insane trying to find Kyra. It's weird. I've been a… slave… for the past five months, and he's never done anything like… this."

Thel slouched back into the couch and hung his head over the side. He had half a mind to kick Nax's ass into the suns, but then again, he clearly had his reasons for not telling him everything about the situation. Gaffi suddenly spoke up, breaking a silence that Thel hadn't noticed. "Yes, now, as for why we're actually here…" he went on, and Thel brought his head back up to look at Gaffi. "They're after her because they want to shake Nax's location out of her, or you, if they find out you've been keeping her. What I would like to do is bring you both into the Imperial Witness Protection program. All Stormtroopers in Mos Eisley will know who you two are, why you're important, and most importantly, will know to protect you."

Thel didn't entirely like what he was hearing. Stormtroopers knowing who he was sounded like a pretty fast way to having his… illegal transactions discovered. "I don't know."

"Thel, I offered the same deal to Nax. While he has a spotless record, we cannot say the same for you." Gaffi suddenly, slowly, and very tensely explained, and Thel immediately caught on. Looks like that went right out the window. Blast. "If you don't accept, we can't guarantee your safety… or your freedom." Thel pursed his lips, now significantly more in favor of the idea. "…but if you do accept, I'd be willing to look over some of your more 'questionable' records."

Time to play coy.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Thel replied, playing dumb. Gaffi rolled his eyes and pulled up Thel's personal file on a datapad, listing basically every single illegal transaction he had made.

So much for being sneaky. Thel'd need to step his game up if he didn't want the Imperials to come knocking later, and they had him by the balls here. "Fine." he begrudgingly said, tossing his hands up in the air. "Do we need to do anything, or are you going to handle it yourself?"

Gaffi glanced back at the troopers, and took a flashlight from the belt of the one flanking him on the right. Standing up, he pulled out a datapad. "Stand up, and face me, please."

Thel stood up and looked directly into the datapad as Gaffi flashed the light on him. The a second light flashed from the datapad, and then Gaffi motioned for Lexi to stand up, which she did, and Gaffi repeated the process.

"The Empire appreciates your cooperation, and we'll take it from here. Thank you." Gaffi said respectfully, motioning for the Stormtroopers leave. All three of them walked out of the house, leaving Lexi and Thel alone once again.

Thel actually just noticed how late it was getting, what with the orange evening rays shining on Lexi's pink skin through the window, partially highlighting her features. He saw her crack a smile. "Questionable records, huh?" she laughed.

Thel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, laugh it up. I do work that pays, don't really care about what the work is." he reached for his holster and pulled out a DC-15s side arm blaster, albeit a heavily modified one. "This beaut of a DC-15s is the most work I've ever put into any one gun. It's also probably the most illegal weapon I've ever made." he flicked a switch, and the blaster charged up. Thel tapped at the bright blue power cell. "This power cell is basically entirely custom; it's made from a DL-44 cell, but I removed the need for blaster power packs so that it self charges. Doesn't pack as much of a punch as a real '44, but it's a helluva lot punchier than the regular 15s." he explained, and Lexi was greatly interested, leaning in close to look at the weapon, the bright blue power cell shining against her skin. Thel then tapped just below the power cell. "Right under the power cell is a custom capacitor I made; lets it hold fifteen shots instead of the regular seven."

Thel flipped the blaster around and pointed to a lever near where his right thumb normally rested. "This is the fire selector, lets me switch between blaster bolts and stunning." Thel moved his left hand towards the muzzle. "This big bulky thing on the bottom is a combination of a laser sight, a tactical flashlight, and an EM launcher, all connected directly to the power cell. I also made an entirely custom pistol grip, made a new trigger, set the screen on the back up to accommodate the new tech, added vents for heat, and reinforced and replaced a lot of old parts. None of it legally, since the blaster itself is illegal as hell to own."

"Lemme guess, Imps wet their panties as soon as they see something even slightly threatening or advantageous against their bucketheads?" Lexi cracked, and Thel erupted into laughter.

"You bet! Then again, we did just accept Imperial protection, so then again I guess we can't really chat shit now, can we?" he snickered.

Both of them kept laughing about the Empire, until Lexi finally stopped. "So, why's it actually illegal?" she asked, this time seriously. "Seems to me like it's just a regular hand blaster."

Thel calmed down too, and slouched back into the couch. "Well, aside from the fact that it's a weapon made for special forces, it doesn't run out of ammo."

"It doesn't?" Lexi asked, sounding incredibly surprised.

Thel shook his head. "Nah, it's got some sort of internal power system that constantly keeps the thing juiced. It doesn't use gas like most other blasters do, so it's just a matter of keeping the thing charged, which is automatic. Though, the thing with removing gas from a blaster is that while yes, it does basically mean you can shoot forever, the shots aren't as powerful."

"…So you got around the problem by using a DL-44 power cell." Lexi caught on, and Thel nodded.

"Exactly! It's probably my favorite piece, hands down. Love it to death, although Trax's '44 comes close in terms of how much love and care I put into a gun."

Lexi smiled at him. After months of being on that shithole corvette, it was an understatement to say that it was nice to finally be able to be treated like a person again and just… discuss things. She didn't even mind that she was handcuffed; it was just a safety precaution, after all, and Thel hadn't really done anything that would suggest he was harboring malicious intent.

One of the shutters on the window fell down and hit the floor, letting more rays into the room. "Sonuva-" Thel cursed, as he got up to fix it. Lexi noticed something in a junk pile in the corner of the room, something reflective. She tried to focus her eyes, and saw that it was some sort of light attached to something, sitting about a meter off the ground. Lexi got up and went over to the pile, peering at whatever it was that was reflective. Under a metaphorical mountain of blaster parts was something flat and cylindrical, with the reflective… thing poking out of it.

Brushing some of the parts on top away, Lexi took an even closer look, and she realized what it was.

It was a droid, an astromech by the looks of things.

Lexi blew some of the dust on top of it off, and she realized what _kind_ of droid it was; a T3 utility droid. Probably thousands of years old, judging by the amount of rust, damage, and general wear and tear on the unit. "My droid catch your eye?" Thel asked casually, leaning down with Lexi to look at it.

"..Yeah. Do you even know what you have here?" Lexi asked, before pausing. "Furthermore, how did you even get this?"

Thel tapped on the droid's photoreceptor. "Some kinda utility droid, I think. When I still lived with my family, my dad bought it off some Jawas, looked about the same as it does now but it worked back then. Soon as it got inside the house, something blew up inside and it hasn't worked since." he said, rubbing his thumb on the photoreceptor to clear some dust off. "My dad chewed the Jawas who sold it to us out, they ended up letting us keep it since they just wanted it gone and gave us an Arfour unit as a replacement. Dad gave this to me as a sort of family project, but we never got around to making it happen. Brought it with me here, and now it's sitting there." he said, before pausing and patting the droid on its head. "Why do you ask?"

Lexi rested her wrists on the droid's top. "This," she glanced at Thel, "..is a T3 series utility droid. It's probably thousands of years old," Thel whistled, "..and is incredibly rare. I've seen just three of them in my life, only one was a functional model, the other two were collector's pieces."

Thel gently pushed Lexi out of the way and moved some of the parts in front of the unit out of the way. He then stood up half-way and moved the other parts over to the side, revealing the front of the droid's body. He then grabbed on to a groove in the front, set his hand on the junk piled on top of the back, and pulled it out slowly, grabbing on to the biggest piece of junk so it wouldn't topple over on top of the two of them. The droid's wheels had long since withered away, so Thel had to jolt it repeatedly to get it clear, but eventually, he did get it out, and gently set the parts down.

To Lexi's surprise, the droid looked fully intact, none of the plating was missing, just ridiculously corroded. The photoreceptor lens wasn't cracked either. Lightly tapping on the casing, she also found that it sounded remarkably intact inside, nothing seemed loose. Lexi glanced up at Thel. "What're you gonna do with it?"

Thel just exhaled and rubbed his forehead. "Dunno. Maybe fix it and sell it to a collector?"

Gently shaking the deactivated droid, Lexi frowned. "Good luck finding a collector on Tatooine that's not a Jawa. Did you ever try and fix it yourself?"

"Only took a look at it the night it broke down. Don't know squat about droids, probably would have broken it further."

"Ha! Lucky for you, one of my friends was a real gearhead. I don't know about doing this to a T3, but I could probably fix it working backwards from an Artoo unit. I can practically recite the schematics from memory, what with how much he's repeated them to me." Lexi laughed, before her face suddenly seemed devoid of joy, as if she had suddenly realized something, and it crushed her.

Thel didn't bother pushing her sudden change in demeanor, and instead heard her stomach rumbling. "Maybe, but you can't really work on an empty stomach, eh?" he joked, ribbing her gently. "I'll make something to eat."

* * *

Lostur sat in his captains chair, staring out of the viewport at the Interdictor. The patrol fleet had jumped in a few hours ago, and hadn't moved from the spot they arrived in. They were just sitting there, menacingly.

It creeped him the hell out, and it normally took a _lot_ more than just a simple patrol fleet not moving to unnerve a season slaver like himself. Then again, he had never crossed paths with an Interdictor before, so there was that fear of the unknown. Yes, he had heard stories about Interdictors and Immobilizer 418s taking down seasoned pirate veterans, but there's a very fine line between hearing stories and then seeing the real thing. Lostur twirled his S-5 with his finger around the trigger guard, pondering what exactly to do. If they were indeed after him, he could probably bait the Arquitens away from the Interdictor with the Bantha's superior engines and destroy them, and then broadside the gravity wells with turbolasers.

Even without squinting, he could tell where exactly the generators were. They were _huge_ , and had to be a massive power drain, which meant that the shields might be weaker whenever they got turned on. Sure, it was based on the hull of an Imperial-class, but it couldn't be packing the same firepower; the generators alone took up almost half the damned ship.

Idly tapping on his chair, Lostur's mind wandered to the guy's surname.

Strag.

"… _Why does that name piss me off so much?"_ Lostur wondered, his head slipping more into his hand the longer he thought about it.

Strag. Strag, Strag, Strag. Just _why_ did that name ring so many bells? Angry bells, too, the kind that Lostur usually associated with jobs gone bad. Or traitors. Traitors angered him like nothing else could.

And then it suddenly hit him.

" _Cobro."_ he mentally seethed. The next few days were going to be interesting. How _nice_ it would be to meet his kid, after all these years. Maybe even meet Cobro himself again. After all, they still had unfinished business to attend to.

* * *

 **That's all for this chapter. I was actually going to make it a bit longer, but eh, I'm trying to set deadlines for myself (Uploading on Fridays at 3pm), and 9.5k words seems long enough. There was going to be a whole flashback section at the end, but I kinda just decided against it.**

 **For those not as well versed in Legends as I am, the DC-15s side arm blaster is the pistol from Republic Commando.**

 **Also, I want to address a potential inconsistency; I think I initially identified the Cranky Bantha as a CR90, when in reality it was always a CR70 using the Vanguard c20 retrofit. This stems from my own error; I thought the Vanguard c20 turned a CR70 into a CR90, not just added shit to a CR70 and brought it up to par with the CR90. Whoops. I'll need to go back and double check to make sure I didn't, lmfao.**

 **Anyways, leave a review.**

' **Till next time.**

 **-Tweak**


	5. Boxed In

**To PoofyOhio: You know what? You raise a good point; I have no idea what I was thinking going with Dreadnaughts, Arquitens would make infinitely more sense. For some reason, my dumb ass thought Dreadnaughts were way weaker than they actually are, hence Jace's worry about them. It's fixed now.**

 **Nothing to say other than read and review. Feedback is important.**

* * *

Nax was outside the house with Kyra, helping her practice her aiming. While it wasn't even remotely close to the real thing, they didn't exactly have a plethora of options. Right now, he was helping her hone her aiming reflexes and accuracy against moving targets, mostly by chucking rocks into the air and having Kyra try to shoot them down.

They… weren't having all that much success, admittedly.

Kyra's '44 shot again, the red bolt just barely missing the rock this time. Nax sighed, "You're getting close. Try again." he said, before tossing another rock. This one had just barely cleared the two of them, before a red bolt just barely scraped the rock, and the gun gently vibrated in her hands, signaling that only five shots were left. "Again." Nax said, before throwing another rock. The blaster discharged, but instead of flying past the rock, it disappeared, taking the rock with it. "Nice! That's your…first one, I think." he remarked, half serious, half snarky.

"Again!" Nax shouted, tossing another rock. The gun fired again, and the bolt hit the rock, sending this one flying into the sand.

"Now!" he suddenly shouted, giving a brief pause before he threw the rock, but Kyra shot it down nonetheless.

Nax threw two more rocks without warning; Kyra shot one down and scuffed the other, before the blaster violently shook in her hands and started venting heat, so she lowered the gun. Nax put his right hand on Kyra's left shoulder. "We're done for today. Four outta fifty's not bad." he snarked, before noticing Kyra's lack of a response, so he pat her on the shoulder. "Don't feel bad. I was worse when I started out."

Kyra still didn't respond. "You okay?" he asked, suddenly noticing her sullen demeanor.

She quickly sprung back to life, and half turned to face Nax. "I'm fine, really." she said, giving him a reassuring smile. Nax shrugged and headed back inside, with Kyra following him a bit later. While that was mostly true, something had been on her mind lately.

Namely, who she was before all of this. Was she someone important, or just a nobody caught in the wrong place at the wrong time? Who was her family? Were they looking for her? Did she even _have_ family, for that matter? Where would she even go when this was over? Naboo, maybe? A peaceful life in the Core _did_ seem pretty appealing when they were done here.

Closing her eyes, Kyra started trying to remember something, _anything_ about her past, an effort that yielded very little. Only vague shapes of people, maybe friends and family, maybe not. It actually started to hurt, so she stopped and opened her eyes to see Nax halfway in the doorway to the rest of the house, peering at her. "You sure you're okay?" he asked, worried about her.

Kyra nodded, reassuring him. "Stop worrying about me, Nax," she quietly laughed. "I'm fine." she smiled. She just didn't want to talk about it. Not right now, anyways.

Nax, seemingly accepting of her response, headed back down the stairs. "By the way, we'll be going to Mos Eisley tomorrow!" he shouted up to her.

"Okay!" she shouted back, before pulling the power pack release lever and pulling it out of the top.

* * *

Nax drove the speeder past the Lucky Despot, with Kyra in the passenger seat, and Arfive laying comfortably in the bed. If droids could even feel comfortable, that was. He was going to blaze right past the crashed passenger liner, if it wasn't for the fact that a Rodian, likely one of Valarian's gangsters, flagged him down. Slowing down, Nax came to a stop, and the Rodian ran up to the speeder, frantically waving a datapad in his face, shouting something in Rodese.

"…What's this?" Nax said, taking the datapad from the Rodian. It was obviously a missing person's notice, with a female Rodian pictured, and a reward of five thousand credits for anything leading to her safe return.

The Rodian stopped babbling for a second, and cleared his throat. "M-my wife! They took my wife!" he panicked. Nax signaled for him to slow down and take his time, and that he didn't understand. "My wife, she went shopping near Kerner Plaza a few days ago, and she never came back! Please, have you seen her?" the Rodian asked with a heavy lisp, rapidly tapping on the datapad with the picture of his wife.

Nax frowned, and both Kyra and Nax shook their heads no, while Arfive gave a sad series of beeps, indicating he hadn't either. "Blast it all to…!" the Rodian shouted, frustrated, and he began to pace around the speeder, rapidly scratching at his snout, or… whatever it was that Rodians had for a mouth.

"You know, if you're looking for an investigator, my partner and I are looking for work," he said, not trying to hide the fact that he wanted money, before turning to Kyra. "…Isn't that right?" he asked, and Kyra casually nodded, while Arfive beeped at the prospect of helping the guy out.

The Rodian stopped, turned, and stared at them both wide-eyed. "You'd… do that?" he asked, and Nax raised an eyebrow at him, as if he were stupid.

"If you're hiring, yeah."

The Rodian breathed a sigh of relief, and wiped some sweat from his forehead. "…Thank you. I'm paying this out of pocket, so you don't need to worry about middle-men or anything like that."

Nax solely focused on him. "Right, noted. Do you have any leads aside from Kerner Plaza?" Nax asked, and the Rodian shook his head, no. That was disappointing. "What's your name, then?"

"P-Phaz Rurmiid." he stumbled. Nax's blood ran cold, but he tried not to show any changes in his facial expression. "If it helps, my wife is Blii Rurmiid."

This… would take some maneuvering. "Alright, Phaz, who do you think took your wife?" he inquired. Nax already had a sinking feeling as to what his answer would be.

Phaz ran his hand over his scalp. "I… I don't know. The Empire, maybe? My step-brother, Vark, went missing a few days ago,"

Nax's hopes that this was just a really big coincidence were crushed in an instant.

"…and he was into some really shady stuff, so maybe they took her as well?"

"If that were the case, wouldn't you have been taken, too?"

Phaz started nervously looking around into the crowd, probably scanning for Imperial agents. "Maybe, but…" he stumbled, before throwing his arms up in the air. "Blast it all!" he yelled, frustrated, turning around to face the Despot, and then mumbled something under his breath.

Nax tapped him on the back. "If that's all, we'll be on our way. We'll find your wife, one way or another."

Phaz glanced back at them, and motioned with his head for them to go. They barely heard him yell. "Thanks!" over the roar of the turbines.

Nax was stonefaced, and Kyra was just staring at him the whole way to Kerner Plaza. "…Wasn't Vark the Rodian we…" she asked hesitantly, and Nax immediately cut her off.

"Yes."

"…Did you know that he…?"

"No."

Kyra briefly stayed silent, opting to look out at the crowds on the street, rather than talk about the situation, at least for the moment. "…Are we still going to help him…?"

"Obviously." Nax replied, keeping an iron grip on the steering wheel. "I had no idea he had family. If anything, I'm probably the reason his wife disappeared, but I'm not just going to let that sit." Nax rested his left arm over the side of the speeder.

Kyra briefly looked over at Nax, studying his body language. "What makes you think you're the reason she's gone?"

He half shrugged in response. "I don't have any solid proof, but the bounty on Vark said he might have connections to terrorists. Something tells me that Blii might've joined up with them to get revenge on the Empire after we took Vark."

"…and if she was kidnapped?"

"Then we try and rescue her."

"What if she was murdered?"

"Deliver the bad news, and the proof, if we need to."

The turbines began to wind down, and the speeder came to a halt near an alleyway. Both Kyra and Nax got out of the speeder. Kyra vaulted over the hood of the speeder to Nax's side, and helped him lift Arfive out, gently setting him on the ground, and the astromech beeped happily.

Taking the lead, Nax led the other two into the alley, and it was about as well kept as a back-alley in Mos Eisley could be. There was trash all over the place, sandstone walls had either fallen in or were in the process of falling in, and Nax could _swear_ there was moisture in the air.

Keeping their hands close to their weapons, the trio carefully worked their way through the alley, minding themselves to not step, or in Arfive's case, roll over any garbage that happened to be in their way. Kyra and Nax both scanned the alley for any signs of a struggle, while Arfive turned his light on, shining it on anything in the shadows. They worked their way down a set of stairs, into a trench, and up another set of stairs, coming out to a small courtyard, with even more junk haphazardly piled up in the corners than in the alleyway.

"A dead end?" Kyra said, confused. Why would anybody plan to build an alley that lead to a dead end?

Actually, did Mos Eisley even have city planning?

She just looked around at the junk piles. There might've been something useful underneath all of it, but they weren't here for whatever might be under there. Kyra lifted a jagged piece of metal up, exposing a small opening. She was quickly hit by a noxious, disgusting smell, and she started hacking and coughing, so she put her hand over her mask where her mouth was, trying to block it out.

Arfive quickly rolled over to her and shined his light into the opening, revealing a dirty, damaged Stormtrooper helmet. Arfive adjusted his light, and it revealed that it wasn't just the helmet, it was an entire suit, and there wasn't just one, there were several of them. She then noticed that the filth on them wasn't from the junk pile; it was dried blood.

Suddenly feeling uneasy, she took a step back, glancing over at Nax, who was currently looking at some blaster marks on a wall. "I, uh… found something…" Kyra stumbled. Turning to her, Nax walked over, stopping about three fourths of the way to cover his face.

Crouching down and looking into the opening, Nax felt the same sickly uneasiness that Kyra had. "Oh." was all he could muster himself to say. "What a wonderful sight." he remarked, trying to lighten up the situation, at least a bit.

A dead Stormtrooper sitting to the right of the opening suddenly fell over, exposing the back of his helmet, with something shiny sticking out the back, near the bottom of the helmet. Crouching down even further, Nax carefully put his hand into the hole, trying ever so carefully to not touch any of the decomposing material. Out of the corner of his eye, Nax could see Kyra staring at him, her jaw practically on the floor. Feeling his hand touch the Stormtrooper's helmet, he carefully traced his fingers around until he found the thing that had been sticking out. Grabbing hold of it with two fingers, Nax yanked it from its socket, and pulled it from the opening.

It was a rectangular holodisk, likely containing the final helmet recording of the deceased trooper, and probably their best lead right now. The casing looked basically intact, barring a bit of grime on the edge that faced the exterior.

Kneeling down to Arfive, Nax held the holodisk in front of the droid. "Arfive, you can read this, right?" he asked, and the droid quickly spun his head around, chirping in confirmation.

"What're you waiting for?" Kyra asked, waiting for Nax to put the holodisk into Arfive.

"Not doing it here." he replied, looking up at the rooftops. "I feel like we're being watched…"

Slipping the holodisk into his duster, Nax led the them both back out to the speeder.

* * *

Nax rapped on Thel's door to the tune of the first ten notes of _Mad About Me_ , and waited for a response.

Thel knocked back with the next five, and the door opened. Kyra, Arfive, and Nax quickly moved through, and Thel shut the door behind them. "Nice of you to show up." Thel said, a tad annoyed.

Nax smirked at his friend, and then noticed Lexi at the ammo loading bench, cleaning off a droid. "Didn't I ask you to keep her under watch?" Nax asked, before taking a closer look at the droid she was working on. "And isn't that the utility droid your dad got cheated on?"

Thel vaulted over the couch and took a seat, kicking back. "One," he raised his index finger, "she IS under watch, and two," he raised his middle finger, joining it with the index, "yes, it is. She knows what it's actually worth, so I'm letting her have a go at fixing it so I can sell it off and make some money."

"Uh-huh." Nax replied, thoroughly unimpressed. Lexi, while not an immediate concern, was still untrustworthy, and it really didn't help Nax's consciousness that she was running around, basically untied.

Lexi finally noticed the trio's presence, and turned around. "Kyra!" she shouted, dropping whatever she was doing to run over and hug her. "I'm so glad you're okay!"

"I… won't be.. for much… longer.." Kyra choked out, and, realizing her mistake, Lexi let go of her bear hug, letting Kyra breathe again. She started taking rapid, deep breaths, coughing the whole time, before managing to get it under control. "It's good to… hah… see you too, Lexi."

Nax leaned over the couch, next to Thel. "We're not gonna be here for too long, just needed a safe place to go over something we found." he said, slipping the holodisk out, and Thel quickly scanned it, before looking up at Nax. "By the way, you wouldn't happen to know anything about Vark's family, would you?"

Thel looked at him, his expression blank, before he snapped back to reality. "Just that he had a sister, why?"

Sighing, Nax slipped the holodisk into his sleeve. "Thought as much. She's missing, her husband has me out looking for her."

"Didn't know you cared enough to help a target's family out, Nax."

"Weld it, Thel. I'm a bounty hunter, not a hitman. It's my job to fix accidental collateral, and if I'm not the reason she's gone, well, a job's still a job." Nax said, before reaching behind him to tap Arfive. "C'mon, Arfive, let's see what's on this…" Nax didn't feel Arfive behind him, so he turned around to see the empty space where Arfive had been sitting just seconds ago. "…disk."

Frantically looking around for where Arfive could have possibly ran off to, he noticed Arfive sitting next to the reloading bench, staring motionless at the deactivated utility droid. "Arfive!" Nax shouted, although the astromech didn't respond. Standing up and walking over to him, he knocked on top of Arfive's head. "Hello? Arfive? You there?"

Still no response.

Nax waved his hand in front of the droid's sensors, but he continued to stare at the utility droid, almost if he were in a trance. Something about the droid had his complete, undivided attention. Nax wrapped both hands around the droid and tried to pick him up to take him into another room, and he suddenly came to life, wobbling and babbling in Droidspeak, not unlike how a child or a stubborn pet would behave. Arfive quickly freed himself from Nax's grip, crashing to the floor and turning around, aggressively beeping at him, all tools out and ready to strike., while keeping close to the disabled droid.

Trying to reassert his control of the situation, Nax tried to grab Arfive and force him into the room…

…only to be shocked by Arfive's prod. Nax jolted back, and Arfive decided to let the prod discharge more electricity around his feet, forcing him into a sort of dance to avoid the shocks, at least until Nax put enough distance between himself and Arfive. Kyra and Lexi were both laughing at the sight of Nax being messed with by an astromech half his height, while Thel was looking at the situation from over his shoulder, bemused.

"Hah! I think he's a bit protective of your droid, Thel!" Lexi said, trying, and failing, to control her laughter. She ended up kneeling over and holding her stomach, in a vain attempt to keep it down. Arfive turned his head to look at Lexi, and gave several beeps of confirmation. "Oh? You want to help fix it?"

Arfive gave another confirming beep.

"..Maybe. That depends on what your owner thinks." she said, and, finally managing to control her laughter, Lexi looked up at Nax. "How'saboutit?"

Nax carefully eyed Arfive up, who took notice and put some of his tools up in a sort of defensive pose. "He's not mine. He's hers." Nax pointed to Kyra.

Lexi looked over at Kyra, who was still laughing, albeit quietly "..Well, Kyra? Whaddya think?"

Having finally managed to compose herself, Kyra glanced over at Arfive, snickering. She nodded, and then pointed at Arfive, then to Nax. Arfive spun his head around quickly, rolled into the center of the living room, and opened his holodisk port. Nax walked up to Arfive, sat down, and put the holodisk into the slot. Arfive turned around, and the video on the holodisk began to play.

* * *

TK-4028 sat in the window of one of the buildings in the courtyard, looking out into the courtyard. The apartment he was sitting in was long abandoned, no tenants, no witnesses; perfect for a sting op like this. The innie they were after had shown up not too long ago, average height, but no details; he was cloaked.

Guy was just standing there, staring out into the trench. Creeped him out.

Trying to take his edge off, he thought of home. Just a few more months in this hellhole, and he'd be out of here; back home on Corellia, with his wife, Kaya, and his son he had never seen before. He thought of her long, platinum blonde hair, her bright green eyes, and her pretty face. It was enough to make him fall in love all over again, and more than enough to make him feel homesick. He hated Tatooine with a burning passion. The desert was awful for someone who was so used to living in the rural countryside of Corellia, he actually wished he was put somewhere in the Core, or even the Mid-Rim.

4028's thoughts were interrupted by his helmet commlink going off. _"This is Hunter One-One Actual, plainclothes spotted someone heading into the alley and is bugging out."_ his commanding officer said. _"All callsigns, check in."_

4028 pressed down on his commlink. "Hunter One-Three, reading."

" _Hunter One-Six."_

" _Hunter One-Two, sir."_

" _Copy, Hunter One-Four here, ready to spring the trap."_

" _Hunter One-Five, reporting."_

" _Hunter Two-One Actual, we're in position."_

" _Hunter Two-Two, on station and ready to shoot some innies."_

4028 picked up his E-11 and pulled the power pack, replacing it with a fresh one. He hadn't shot with that pack, but it never hurt to top up on ammo. Keeping one hand on his blaster, and the other on the wall, he watched the cloaked figure with great intent. According to intelligence, this guy was apparently a massive innie leader, a big shot that operated mostly around Mos Eisley and the Mesra, though he'd apparently been spotted as far out as Anchorhead.

The plan was to bring him in, interrogate him, find out where he was based, and bring his accomplices in, if he had any.

A female Rodian appeared, coming up from the trench. The leader beckoned her over, and she obeyed. The two of them began to converse in Rodese, rendering translation nigh impossible without after action review.

" _Ready…"_ One-One Actual said over the comms, leaving himself open to continue. Triple checking his blaster, 4028 prepared to breach. _"Go! Go! Go!"_ he shouted, and 4028 ran out into the courtyard, alongside the rest of Hunter One. Six stormtroopers, plus a sniper team, all had their weapons trained on the two figures. The Rodian, obviously, jumped, but the cloaked figure remained still.

"Down! Down on the ground!"

"Get down! You're under arrest!"

"DOWN!"

All of their commands seemed to overlap in 4028's mind, meshing together to form incoherent word salad. Over the commotion, 4028 noticed the figure turning to the Rodian, and he raised his weapon, joining the mess. "Get down, innie!" he yelled.

There was a brief pause in the yelling and shouting, and 4028 _swore_ he heard the cloaked guy say something along the lines of "…I'll take care of this…", so 4028 got closer, practically sticking the E-11 in the guy's face. "Are you deaf, or what?! I said get down!"

The cloaked figured glanced over at 4028, his hood hiding his face, not unlike that of a Jawa, and appeared to kneel down…

…before throwing his cloak off, and running around at completely inhuman speeds. First to go was One-One Actual, the guy ran up to him and shot him in the chest, piercing his heart with a blaster bolt. The team still hadn't fully reacted, and the guy ran up to One-Two and One-Four, kicking One-Four in the chest and sending him into One-Two, their plastoid armor clattering on impact, before he shot a blaster bolt into their heads, getting a collateral.

By now, everyone that was still alive had caught on. One-Five and One-Six opened fire, although the guy tricked One-Six into shooting One-Five by using him as a human shield, and then kicked him into One-Six, before running up to shoot him, only to have a missed sniper shot do it for him.

Running for cover, 4028 heard the two snipers shooting, and the guy returning fire, only to have the firefight end quickly. Poking his head out, he saw the afterimages of the guy running after him in a zig-zag pattern. Thinking fast, 4028 threw his E-11 down, and launched a right hook, feeling it quickly impact what felt like a brick wall.

The guy had walked right into his punch, and was stumbling back. Taking advantage of the situation, 4028 charged, locking the innie into a headlock, and repeatedly kneeing him in the face. "Die! You! Insurrectionist! Scum!" he shouted. His rage felt hotter than being in the center of the twin suns right now; his entire squad; his _friends_ , all wiped out. Pulling his arms back and gripping the man's head, he prepared to snap his neck.

However, he suddenly found he lacked the strength. Looking down at his chest, 4028 saw a smoking hole, right where his sternum was. Looking up, he saw the Rodian, holding a still smoking blaster. Feeling his strength and stamina leave his body through the hole, 4028 fell backwards, releasing the man from his grip and landing on his back with a meaty _thud_ , leaving him staring at the sky.

He didn't even have the strength to get back up.

…Was this how it ended? Was he really destined to die here, alone, on this hellhole of a planet?

4028's mind raced back to Kaya and their son. The son he would never see. The son that would never know his father. His wife, who, one day, expecting her husband to return home, would hear a knock on the door, and, excited, would bring their son to the door to greet him, only to be greeted by Imperial officers delivering the bad news. He could almost hear the officer's words echoing in his head. _"Miss Kaya, we come bearing bad news about your husband, TK-4028…"_

No. To hell with identification numbers. He was Telan Jahar, not TK-4028. He knew that was what the officer would refer to him as instead of his name, but to hell with it.

Taking his last breaths, he reached his hand out to the sky, hoping to feel… something. Anything. Maybe Corellia's lush, beautiful fields again. Maybe the feeling of holding Kaya's hand as they ran through them together. Maybe even his son. Mentally begging anything out there to grant him this last wish, something out there did grant it to him.

He was given a vision, either from an entity out there, or from his own dying, delirious mind. It was of Kaya, rocking their son to sleep, before setting him in the crib they had bought, and stroking his head gently, singing him a lullaby. Her beautiful voice was enough to bring him to tears, and the vision ended.

"…I'm sorry, Kaya..." was the last thing Telan Jahar said, under his dying breath, before expiring, homesick, injured, and afraid for his family.

The helmet rolled to the side, giving the recorder a clear view of the man's face. "Help me move these bodies." he said, glancing at the Rodian. "Welcome to the insurgency, Blii."

* * *

"Pause it." Nax ordered, and the recording stopped dead center on the man's face. He had a black scar that stuck out against his fair skin, about four centimeters in diameter, running along his right cheek and up his nose, stopping at the bridge. It looked like the skin had been replaced with carbon fiber to patch up the bleeding, but it looked… wrong. Unnatural, even.

There was a much more natural looking scar covering his right eye vertically, with his right eye looking glazed over and white, with the iris being a faded green. His left eye didn't look like the right, leading Nax to believe it was an injury, or cataracts. His black mullet and handlebar moustache made him actually look kinda comedic, and he would be, if he hadn't just wiped out an entire squadron of Stormtrooper, let alone with the inhuman amount of speed he displayed. The Rodian in the footage was obviously Blii, and now he had significant reason to believe she hadn't been kidnapped, but rather, joined an insurgent cell, probably to get revenge for Vark.

Nax just had even more reason to believe this was all his fault. Tapping on Arfive's head with his fingers, he thought about how to proceed. He didn't recognize the guy, but as if his unsaid prayers had been answered, Thel suddenly appeared in the corner of his vision.

"Why d'you have a video of one of my customers?"

"Who?"

Thel pointed at the only person in frame. "Bataan Keldo."

"That's his name?"

Thel slowly turned to look at his friend, realizing his mistake. "…You're gonna kill him, aren't you?"

"…No?" Nax replied, and that answer didn't fill Thel with confidence.

"Bet."

"Bet what? I don't even know if he's got a bounty on him, so I don't really care."

"…Then why did you ask?"

Arfive rewinded the footage to show Blii, whom Nax pointed out. "Because I'm looking for her, laserbrain."

Before they could try and bicker any further, there was a knock at the door. Thel turned to look at the door, hoisted himself up over the couch, and opened the door.

Except nobody was there.

Confused, he looked around, poking his head outside, before looking down and noticing some kind of durasteel plate left on the doorstep. Carefully picking it up, he shook it and tapped on it, banging it against the exterior walls, making an unholy racket the whole time. Before long, the noise of Thel messing with the plate died down, and he came back inside.

"For you." Thel said, throwing it underhanded at Nax, who fortunately had the reflexes to catch it before getting hit in the face.

Putting his hand on the bottom of the plate, Nax flipped it around, revealing some engraved Aurebesh script on it, faintly illuminated against the glow of the hologram of Hunter One-Three's helmet recording.

It only said "We know." with a poorly engraved image of an Imperial flag in tatters and on fire below it. Flipping the plate around, a number was revealed: five.

"Creepy." Nax commented. The number seemed a bit random, so he moved the hand holding the plate around, trying to think of what it could mean. Five Stormtroopers killed? Five days?

Light reflected off of the plate, and that's when Nax noticed the symbols for Besh and Dorn. BD Five? That sounded more like a shotgun or some sort of luxury landspeeder than a codephrase. Still, what did BD Five mean?

Nax then noticed an etching near the BD of a starfighter, and then it clicked. BD was reversed from DB. DB Five.

Docking Bay Five. That would explain the starfighter. It was a stretch, too, a big one, but they didn't really have any better leads.

Nax glanced behind him to check where Kyra was. She was happily chatting away with Lexi, leaning up against Thel's kitchen cabinets, while Lexi half focused on talking to Kyra, and half focused on cleaning the utility droid up, with its internal components safely removed and placed far away. The left side of the droid actually looked mostly clear of rust and damage, it's a wonder why Thel didn't do it before.

Deciding that Nax was done watching the hologram, Arfive shut it off and rolled over to Kyra and Lexi, beeping incessantly. The two looked over at him, gave him a pat on the head, and lifted him up onto a stool wide enough to fit an astromech, one conveniently high enough to both see the utility droid's internals, but also to work on them.

Kyra looked back into the living room, catching a glimpse of Nax looking at her. He signaled to her that it was time to go, so she waved goodbye to Lexi, and the two of them walked out together.

"Where're we going now?" Kyra asked, half-skipping to keep pace with Nax, seemingly more chipper and upbeat after having chatted Lexi up.

Twirling the landspeeder keys around his finger, Nax glanced at her. "Docking bay twelve." he said, flashing her the piece of durasteel with the markings engraved on it. The two of them jumped in, with Nax casually throwing the plate onto the floor.

"Why there?"

The turbines kicked on, and both of them felt their organs fall into their bodies as the speeder kicked off the ground.

"'Cause some laserbrain who thinks he's being clever wants to meet us there, I guess." Nax said, kicking the plate up into his lap with his free foot.

"You sure do like calling people stupid, when you're the one who could be walking into an ambush." she smirked behind her mask. Nax raised a finger, as if to quip back at her, but lowered it. Kyra's grin only intensified.

* * *

Parking the landspeeder at the back entrance to the docking bay, Nax left it on idle in case they needed to make a quick escape. Both of them got out, minding their step so as to not make too much noise, although it's not like they would be heard over the turbines. The two of them went down the stairs into the backroom, which was apparently a kitchen, the door opening for them automatically. Weapons raised, they crept through the back, checking their corners and minding where they were walking.

Past the conservator, but before the arch that led to the dining room, a cloaked figure came in through what must have been the hallway. "Glad to see you laserbrains…" he cut himself off when he noticed Kyra and Nax, who now had their weapons pointed at him. It was the same cloak from the recording, and his voice was similar to the owner of the cloak.

"Show hands!" Nax ordered, sticking the shotgun closer to put emphasis on his orders, and Kyra did the same.

Carefully looking around, the cloaked man slowly raised his hands. "Alright, alright, I hear you. We don't need to escalate this…"

Nax produced the plate, and tossed it at the man's feet. "We were told to come here. Start talking, fast."

The man studied the plate, before looking up at the two of them. "Ah, I see. You two were the ones poking around our little 'accident.'" he said, literally using airquotes to get his point across. "I come with you carrying an offer."

"Better be a good one."

The man's hands started to lower, but a quick reinforcement of discipline and who was in control of the situation stopped that. "Yes, well…" he looked around. "You two look like you can handle yourselves. My… organization has need of people like you."

Nax gave an exaggerated eyeroll. "You mean your insurgency."

The man looked surprised. "…I see the Lothcat's out of the bag, then."

Nax blinked a few times. "…Did you _seriously_ think you were pulling some shit?" he asked incredulously. "I mean, _really_?" Nax pressed, and the man was taken aback.

"I-" he stumbled, but Nax interrupted him.

"Not _**only**_ did you forget to destroy any evidence linking you to wiping those Stormtroopers out, you _**tracked us**_ _**down**_ , and left a "cryptic" message at my doorstep, leading me _**right to you**_." he said, infuriated at the leader's stupidity. Getting closer, Nax started to poke his finger into the guy's chest, pushing him around. "I don't know who you are or what your plan is for getting me in with you people, but I can tell, clear as day, that your "plan" for bringing me here is so full of holes and poor planning that if I were an Imperial spy, or _even better, a_ _ **snitch**_ , you would've been up to your **ass** in Imperial plastoid ten seconds ago." he shouted, progressively getting louder as he went on. When Nax finished, he heard Kyra quietly laughing to herself, and when she quieted down, he also heard two men laughing, the sounds coming from the corners in front of them, before it quickly ended. In both corners, there was some sort of rack, or a hanger, or something propping up large blankets, wide and high enough to conceal a single person each. Kyra and Nax pointed their weapons at the corners, spotting quick movement that almost immediately stopped.

"Out." Nax simply commanded, keeping one eye on the leader, and the other on the corner, with Kyra doing the same. "I said out!" he shouted, this time more forceful. Slowly, two humans rose from underneath the blankets, blasters raised in the air. "Drop the blasters!" Nax commanded, and both of them threw their blasters on the ground, at Kyra's and Nax's feet, both of them being A280 blasters, except they were both chopped down to pistol form; a strange choice, considering the A280's purpose as a longblaster.

The insurgent leader waved his hand close to Nax's face. "You will forget about this and come with me to join our fight against the Empire." he said in a suggestive tone, as if trying to implant the thought in Nax's mind.

"No." Nax simply replied, and the man tried again, repeating his exact words. Nax shoved the shotgun in his face and pumped it. "Did I stutter?" he threatened, just as the plastoid shell clattered against the ground.

The man sighed, defeated, and both of his lackeys smirked at each other, making it quick so that their boss wouldn't notice. "...So, if you're not here to join us, then what _are_ you here for?"

"We're _finally_ getting somewhere!" Kyra said, exasperated that it took them this long to even start talking about what they were here for. "We're here for Blii Rurmiid." she said, not flinching from his gaze as he looked at her.

"I… suppose that could be arranged. Just one question, though," he hesitated. "..What do you want her for?"

Cautiously lowering his weapon, Nax eyeballed the leader. "Her husband's worried about her." he said simply. Not revealing any details was crucial for this.

"…I see." he said simply, and although Nax was still on edge, Kyra seemed to have relaxed a bit. "Follow me. I'll take you to her." he said, motioning for his lackeys to follow him, not picking up their weapons. Nax pointed his shotgun at their backs while Kyra grabbed their A280s and threw them inside of her duster.

* * *

Nax and Kyra had been following the innies on their landspeeder for some time now, probably an hour had passed. The sights kind of stopped being interesting ten minutes in to the drive.

Kyra sat up in her seat, turning her attention away from the innie speeder and to Nax. "We've been at this for over an hour!" she shouted over the screaming turbines. "Let's just head back to Mos Eisley and take a different job!"

Refusing to take his eyes off the speeder, Nax pressed on. "A job's a job, Kyra! I'm not pulling out last minute!" he shouted back.

"What if it's a trap?"

They turned a corner into a canyon, the walls uncomfortably close to the speeder. Not close like a podrace, but close enough to put Nax on edge. "If it's a trap, we'll think of a way to get back at them!"

Rolling her eyes, Kyra's attention switched to the canyon walls. Everything about it screamed "ambush" to her; she just wasn't sure if it would be from the innies, or something else. Her suspicions were quickly correct, as there was the sound of a slugthrower firing once, and the innie speeder started sputtering out, crashing into the ground. Nax barely had time to stop the speeder, let alone prevent a crash.

They both jumped out at the same time, weapons at the ready, right as another shot landed near Kyra's feet, causing her to scramble back behind the speeder, on Nax's side. The innies had recovered remarkably fast, and were already out of the speeder, with a hidden compartment having been opened, where the innie leader was tossing blaster carbines to his men. "Sandpeople! Watch for scope glint!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, as the men regrouped close together, out of cover, slowly backing away from the speeder, constantly performing 360 scans of the walls.

Kyra poked her head out from behind cover, caught a glimpse of a Tusken aiming directly at her, and narrowly ducked back in to cover, causing the Tusken to miss the shot. Sparks shot out next to her head as a slug penetrated the mini guard rails Nax had put on the speeder, but didn't fully go through, giving Kyra a taste of what being this close to death was like. She felt her blood run cold, and her eyes went wide, but she had no time to dwell on those feelings. Quickly looking over at Nax, she sort of just stared at him, dumbfounded at what to do, having been so close to death. He was frantically unloading the shotgun, rapidly racking the pump to empty the tube, getting multiple shells stuck on the ejection port. Finally having cleared it, he pushed in a green colored shell into the tube, racked it, and began putting more in. "What do we do?!" Kyra shouted, suddenly scared now that she had been reminded of her own mortality.

"Shoot back!" Nax shouted, standing up, weapon raised towards the walls. He didn't even get a shot off before two clouds of dust kicked up behind his back from shots hitting the wall. Immediately getting back into cover, Nax looked shellshocked. "To hell with that." he said, suddenly less gung-ho than before, right as a slug bounced off the speeder near his head, harmlessly hitting the wall, causing him to flinch.

The two of them sat there, pinned, not saying a word. Nax held a closed fist out, and the Tuskens apparently changed targets from them, to the innies, and started firing shots at them. Poking her head under the speeder, and through the ripples of the repulsorlift, she saw the innies backing away into whatever could be considered cover, away from the Tusken snipers. A cloud of sand kicked up behind one of the insurrectionists, and he dropped dead, blood splattering from his skull. The leader and the other lackey picked up the pace, and a second shot rang out, too fast for a bolt action, and killed the other innie. The leader dropped all pretense of caution, and made a dead run for the wall. Another shot rang out, and a half a second later, another, each one missing him narrowly, as the leader bobbed and weaved. Each shot was within a half a second of the other.

While this was happening, Nax had been counting the shots and the time between them. One, two, one, two.

Two snipers.

Picking the shotgun back up, he half stood, half leaned on the speeder, Kyra anxiously looking at him the whole time. She cautiously did the same as Nax took aim. "There's two snipers, see 'em?" he said, using the muzzle of the weapon as a pointer. Squinting, Kyra did end up spotting them, both Tuskens, both using cycler rifles, both cracking away at the innie, and both of them distracted. She glanced at Nax and nodded. "We don't have the range to take them out, but those carbines do." Nax swallowed. "We need to make a run for it and grab them - fast."

Kyra's eyes widened. "Are you out of your mind?!"she said in a hushed voice, trying not to attract the Tusken's attention.

"I don't see you coming up with any better plans, Kyra." Nax responded, still eyeing the snipers.

Mentally cursing herself, Kyra got ready to run.

"Three..."

"Two…"

"One!"

The two of them ran over to the bodies in a dead sprint, nabbed the two carbines, both E-11s, and ran back to the speeder, miraculously having not been shot by the sniping Tuskens. Not bothering with zeroing the scope – or the sights, Nax raised the carbine to his cheek, took in a deep breath, and pulled the trigger. The carbine kicked into his face as the red bolt shot out, the Tusken screamed – and fell to its death down the canyon, while the other ran off, having lost its partner. Nax and Kyra both fired some stray shots, and after a brief period, lowered their weapons, still on edge.

Finally choosing to look away from the canyon wall, the pair observed the innie leader checking the bodies, probably cursing to himself for losing his men. He brushed his hand over their bloodied faces, shook some of the blood off, picked them up, and walked up to Nax and Kyra, setting the bodies in the speeder. "Sorry about your men." Nax apologized.

He glanced back at the crashed speeder, and then at Nax. "Yes… I'm sure you are. Now you see why we need people with your skills – we're losing too many of our own, both against the Empire, and the natives." he exhaled in disappointment. "Our base isn't too far from here."

* * *

The trio walked inside the "base" through the front wall, which was really just a rinky-dink run-down moisture farm situated in a box canyon, albeit a big moisture farm. Some big shards of rock covered most of the base from the air, and what wasn't covered by that was hidden with desert camouflage netting – obviously old and outdated, but good enough for the insurgents. Some people were milling around, giving awkward stares at them. There were five outdoor buildings, and probably more hidden inside the walls of the canyon.

"Excuse me, I must take care of something." the leader apologized. "I'll have Blii brought to you in that building over there." he pointed to a building directly in front of them – a standard Tatooine sandstone home with only two rooms, rounded dome and all – before walking away into a bigger building marked with "MEDICAL" over the door, carrying the two bodies.

Kyra and Nax shrugged at each other and headed inside, taking a seat near the center of the room at a small dining table. The room itself was actually fairly bare, and the silence was deafening, so much so that Kyra's humming and tapping actually made Nax jump a little when she started doing it, especially from the echo. However, he eventually settled into it, and managed to pick out a group singing in a building to their left.

" _Oh, what would we do with a drunken Stormie, what would we do with a drunken Stormie, what would we do with a drunken Stormie, early in the mornin'?"_ a chorus of five people, three men and two women, cheerfully sang.

" _Hey, ho, up he rises!_

 _Hey, ho, up he rises!_

 _Hey, ho, up he rises!_

 _Early in the mornin'!"_ they continued.

" _Break his gear with a faulty laser!_

 _Break his gear with a faulty laser!_

 _Break his gear with a faulty laser!_

 _Early in the mornin!"_

Nax quickly caught on to the tune and started humming along, but he couldn't do that for long, as a female Rodian with dark green skin entered the room and took a seat. "I'm aware that you two are looking for me." she said simply, immediately identifying herself as Blii.

"Yes-" Nax started, before Blii cut him off.

"Why?"

"Your husband was worried that you were kidnapped. Wanted us to bring you back."

Blii's face fell into her hands. "Of course he would be. Serves me right for leaving him without telling."

"…Why did you do that?"

Blii suddenly snapped. "Because my brother was taken! The Empire stole him from me, and I wanted blood!" she shouted, suddenly pounding the table, her face contorting into anger, before it relaxed. "I… I'm sorry. It's a hard subject for me to talk about."

Nax showed no change in facial expression, while Kyra was anxious to just get out of there. "I'm sorry for your brother." Kyra said, avoiding admitting her complicity in Vark's fate.

"Thank you, but as for Phaz – I'm not going anywhere. This is my home – my _family_ now. I'm not just going to abandon them to go back to that life." Blii simply explained, with a kind of apathetic, detached tone of voice when it came to the subject of returning home.

"But he's your husband?"

"Thanks for confirming that you have a brain." Blii snarked, before sighing. "I'm not abandoning the fight for something I believe in – something I want _revenge_ for, just because my husband wants me back. Now, if that's all, I'll be going back to my post."

Nax and Kyra looked at each other, shrugged, and Blii walked out, trading places with the still masked leader. "Unsuccessful in persuading Blii, I presume?" The two of them nodded. "Of course, she's very… stubborn, I suppose. An admirable trait, but it makes her hard to control." he said, putting a strange emphasis on the word control.

"I guess?" Nax half shrugged, before facing the leader fully. "I suppose we can settle on just confirming she's alive. We'll be on our way, now."

The two of them heard a blaster suddenly charge, and under the table, the leader had two Bryar pistols pointed at their stomachs. "I'm afraid that won't be happening." he said slyly, giving them a slight smirk with what little light got under his hood.

Blast.

* * *

 **That marks this chapter, and the start of the little mini-arc I have planned for this portion of Pulsar Company.**

 **The whole thing with Blii and Phaz wasn't even planned at the start – I was actually just going to make it a totally different character, before I remembered how New Vegas Bounties 3 (a partial inspiration for Grimm Retreat, and by extension, Pulsar Company) made you confront the effects of what you did in the previous mods, so I made them related to Vark to have Nax confront the effects of his actions.**

 **The whole bit with the Drunken Stormie song was fairly obviously based off of the Drunken Sailor song/sea shanty. It was actually going to be based off of the EDF song from 4.1 and sung to the tune of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, but I kinda like this a lot more, personally.**

 **No, the insurgents aren't involved with the Rebel Alliance, because the Alliance doesn't exist yet. They're a rogue group with no affiliations beyond themselves.**

 **Be sure to leave a review that isn't just "nice", cause criticism does a lot more for me than simple words of encouragement.**

' **Till next time.**

 **-Tweak**


	6. Old Flame

**I'm learning to draw, meaning you'll get some drawings of Kyra and Nax eventually.**

 **Also, your word of the day is Insomnia. I haven't been able to sleep properly for some reason – I need a sleeping aid to get tired enough, otherwise I just toss and turn all night. Fuck this shit.**

 **To TheRealNiro: I'm not gonna spoil shit, but Nax's connection with the Mandalorians isn't nearly as deep as one would think. It's his family you need to look at to make assumptions.**

 **Blah blah read and review, and give me ACTUAL reviews too, not just "nice."**

* * *

The innie leader was probably giddy with himself under that hood, although neither Kyra nor Nax could tell under that hood, only able to see the cocky smirk. "You know too much. I can't risk a loose end by letting you go, so here's a simple choice; join us – or die." he said slyly, keeping the bryar pistols charged and aimed at their chests, ready to pierce their hearts if need be.

Biting his lip, Nax's mind raced on what to do. He had no reason to join this little insurgency, let alone get himself into trouble with the Empire, _especially_ considering Kyra's situation. Then again, having a gun pointed at you sure did change a lot.

A quarter of a minute had passed, Nax and Kyra remaining silent. "Allow me to make the choice easier for you." the leader said, dropping the bryar pistol pointed at Nax to the wayside, and reaching the now empty hand out to Nax's face, as if to grab it.

But he didn't.

Seeing his chance, Nax tried to reach for his shotgun, but found he couldn't. The thought was there, but he couldn't act on it, like something was blocking him. Nax quickly felt his limbs go numb, unable to even move his fingers. All fine motor control had suddenly been ripped away from him.

Already beginning to panic, the situation wasn't helped by the slowly growing headache he had. At first it was just like any other headache, but the numbing feeling only intensified the longer whatever was happening went on. Eventually, it grew into full on pain, a pain so unimaginable, so agonizing, there couldn't be any manmade equivalent, and his body began writhing on its own. Whenever he tried to focus on something, it was always cast to the side, like a piece of trash. It was as if an angry beast were taking his memories and throwing them around like toys, just out of his reach.

Nax's eyelids shut on their own, and he grimaced, now having noticed the sharp ringing in his ears, like tinnitus. Just barely audible over the ringing, Nax heard Kyra shout "Stop!"

The pain and the ringing instantly disappeared, and Nax's motor control returned, too. Falling forward, Nax hit the ground, just barely catching himself from hitting the floor. He held his right hand over his chest, trying to keep himself together, having apparently not been breathing through the whole ordeal. Labored breath after labored breath, Nax tried to follow their conversation.

"Why shouldn't I continue?" he heard the leader say condescendingly.

"We'll join you! Just – just don't hurt him anymore!" Nax heard Kyra plead, begging the leader. "Please!"

There was a brief pause, and the leader got up from his chair. "I'll take your begging as a yes," he said, and Nax felt the weight of his shotgun lift from his back. "I'll also be taking these. When you're done, report to your squad leader in the mess hall."

The leader's footfalls grew more distant, until Nax couldn't hear them anymore. Kyra rushed over to him, lifed him, and pulled him into a bear hug, tears streaming down her face and into his shoulder. "I'm sorry…" she whimpered. "…I should have shot him…"

Patting her on the back, Nax remained stonefaced. "…Don't be…" he said before coughing, and Kyra sniffled. "…If you did, he'd have shot you, and probably killed me after. We're lucky to be alive." he finished, before hacking fiercely.

Kyra tightened her hug. "…Are you okay…?"

Nax shook his head no, and then coughed several times. "I feel like my mind just got trampled by a Krayt dragon. I… _think_ I can walk." he said, unsure of himself. Standing up with Kyra, Nax appeared to be able to stand, but as soon as he stepped forward, he stumbled, falling forward, Kyra only just managing to catch him. "…That's a no, then." he commented, and she set him against the wall, where he slid down to the floor, and Kyra sat to his left.

"…What are we going to do?" Kyra asked quietly, sounding scared for Nax, and by extension, herself.

"I have no idea." he replied in a matter-of-fact way, before rubbing his forehead to try and alleviate some of the residual pain. "I'll think of something."

Kyra sniffled, and then fell on top of Nax, quietly whimpering. "…I don't want to die for this stupid cause…"

"Neither do I." he whispered in reply. "But we're not in a position to tell them no and just run away. We'd be shot." he coughed, carefully aiming his mouth away from Kyra's head. "Not to mention, we don't have our guns. It'd be best to just back down and do what we're told for now."

Kyra rolled over to look up at Nax. "…What did he do to you?" she asked, her face red from crying.

Nax looked down at her and shrugged his shoulders. "I don't have the damndest idea. It was like my mind was on fire – no, like it was being torn into and tossed around by an animal. I feel like I should be dead right now."

"…Your mind…?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure how to describe it other than having a rabid animal throwing my memories around. I don't know what he did to me, but I hope it's not going to be permanent." Nax replied, before devolving into a hacking mess again. "'Least, I hope it doesn't become permanent until we've gotten ourselves offworld." he said with a short, dry laugh. Kyra briefly smiled, before sitting back up and resting her head on Nax's shoulder.

* * *

Nax stumbled into the mess hall, arm slung over Kyra, who was supporting him and keeping him from falling over. The mess hall was decently lit, and there were about ten tables in five rows. Three tables in front of them was what must have been the group singing earlier, three men and two women. All appeared to be human and of average height, although one of the men dwarfed the others in the squad, looking more like a short Wookie than a human being, while one of the women was shorter than normal, barely half a meter taller than a Jawa. They all looked more like armored, drunken revelers than insurgents fighting against a galactic power.

Stumbling forward, Nax's path was blocked by the arm of a figure he hadn't seen to his right. Glancing over, the person in question was someone geared up in what looked like a mix of Clone and Stormtrooper armor, with the torso, arms, and hands being pieces from the Phase II design, the legs and boots from Stormtrooper armor, and the helmet being a Phase I Clone piece with a rangefinder and integrated binoculars. Under the heavily weathered exterior, one could see a highly faded desert camo, barely visible, revealing the aged plastoid beneath. Covering the surface of the armor were plenty of little bits of graffiti and tally marks, likely signifying combat achievements. In addition, he wore a faded kama, and an orange sandtrooper pauldron over his right shoulder. Holstered behind his back was what looked like the stock of an EE-3 carbine.

"You two the new guys?" he asked in a gruff, serious voice. Nax gave him a nod, and the man gestured to the seats. "You look like shit, take a seat and I'll run you through what the boss told me, then I'll introduce you to my crew of jokers." Kyra gently slid Nax down onto the chair, and sat next to him, keeping eye contact with the squad leader the whole time. "Let's start things off on the right foot here; I'm Emel, your squad leader for the foreseeable future." he said, offering a handshake, an offer that neither of them took.

"Kyra."

"Nax."

Emel retracted his hand, and rested both arms on the table. "It's my understanding that you're not here willingly, and I know you're not personally invested in this fight, _**however;**_ " he tapped on the table idly. "That doesn't mean you get to treat my squad like garbage."

"I didn't intend on it." Nax replied.

Emel nodded once. "That's good to hear, but I need to be crystal clear with you; I won't be having _any_ of that petty drama shit in my squad."

Their conversation was interrupted by the rest of the squad noticing their presence. "Ey, yo, Em! Bring the new guys up!" the tall guy shouted back to them.

Emel shook his head and half shrugged. "I'll iron the rest of what's expected of you two out later. For now, you need to meet the rest of your squad." With that, Emel got up, and Kyra carefully picked Nax up, bringing him over to their table. The two of them sat down at the far end of the table, on the side the big guy was sitting. "Dewback Squad! These two are your new squadmates, Nax and Kyra. Introduce yourselves before I shove a boot up your asses!"

The big guy went first. "I'm Tenan, resident big guns specialist. If you need a walker blown to tiny bits, I'm your guy." he introduced himself, giving off a prideful aura with his tone.

"And a damn good cook!" Emel added. The squad unanimously agreed with their squad leader's sentiment.

The short woman went next. "I'm Kelah!" she said, seemingly more energetic than the rest of her squadmates. She stared through Nax briefly, before catching herself. "Oh, right! I work infiltration and recovery!" Kelah finished, making herself come off as at least a bit of a ditz.

The two other men went next, one pale, the other suns-kissed. "We're the Jun'tra brothers." they said in unison, pronouncing Jun like hoon. They also spoke in a more thuggish, unrefined Concord Dawn accent. "We're the squad's general assault team."

The tan one pointed at himself. "I'm Jax," he pointed at his brother. "He's Dez."

"Ace meeting you." Dez said to Nax, before leaning over to look at Kyra. "'Specially you, beautiful." he said, not even trying to hide his flirting. Kelah and Jax simultaneously whacked him on the head, while Kyra retreated halfway behind Nax.

"Sorry 'bout my brother, mate. He's a bit of a womanizer, yeah?"

Their attention turned to the woman at the far end of the table, who was silently watching them. Her skin was pale, she had shoulder length black hair and violet eyes, although her left eye was covered by bangs. Around her neck was a necklace with a single cyan gem of some kind, and she was staring right at Nax, faintly scowling at him.

"You not gonna introduce yourself?" Emel asked her, and she didn't even flinch. "Fine." he said, moving behind her. "This is our squad's sniper-" Emel started.

"Valona." Nax interrupted.

"Nax." she replied coldly.

The rest of Dewback Squad stopped moving, and simply stared either at Valona, or at Nax. "You… know each other?" Emel asked, surprised.

"Unfortunately." the two of them said in unison, before glaring at each other. Valona switched her gaze from Nax, to Kyra, maintaining her scowl, causing Kyra to meekly shrink behind Nax in fear.

The squad remained quiet, unsure how to proceed, at least until Dez spoke up. "Sounds like we got some good old sexual tension!" he mocked, before Kelah and Jax smacked him again, "Ow! Twat!" he shouted in contempt for the two of them.

Emel eventually shook the sudden tension off with considerable grace. "Well, in any case, whatever past you two had, I'm sure you can put it behind you. Welcome to Dewback Squad."

Tenan spoke up, raising a bottle of whiskey. "Now, what do you say to a drink? You know, to commemorate our new friends?"

Nax waved his hand in the air dismissively. "I'll pass. I've got enough of a killer headache as is."

Dev smirked. "You wussin' out on us, mate? Bit of a lightweight, huh?" he poked, trying to start a rivalry.

Nax stood up and stumbled, causing Kyra to reflexively catch him. "I'd drink you under the table, _mate_." he replied sarcastically, riffing on Dev's accent, causing a collective _ooh_ from the squad, barring Kyra, Valona, and Dev.

"That a challenge, cunt?" Dev snarked back.

"I can make it one." Nax replied, leaving Dev fuming, although whether it was genuine or not was up for debate.

Kyra and Nax were about to walk out the door when Emel called out to them. "If you're looking for our quarters, it's the door behind the medical building! Just claim one of the empty bunks!"

Nax waved to him, back still turned, and headed out the door with Kyra at his side. When the door shut behind them, Valona was halfway done standing up. Emel put a hand on her shoulder. "Remember the rules, Val; no drama." he warned.

Valona seemingly ignored him, and walked out.

* * *

Kyra helped Nax into the squad's quarters. The room was decently sized, enough to fit two rows of bunk beds, five in a row. Their squad must have been bigger at some point, or they just had a surplus of bunks. Whatever the case, Nax guided Kyra to an unclaimed bunk in the back, near the corner on the right side of the room. He slid off of her and onto the bed, tucking his hat under the top bunk, before falling into the pillow and shutting his eyes. Instead of letting him sleep, Kyra sat down on the bed with him, looking at him.

He opened his left eye halfway and stared up at her. "Do you mind?"

"Er.. I… uh.." Kyra stumbled, having suddenly been caught off guard. She cleared her throat. "Who's Valona?"

"My ex."

"How did-"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Are you s-"

"Yes." Nax replied sharply, causing Kyra to simply get up and leave, not wanting to press the issue further.

When she got outside, she was greeted with the sight of Valona scowling at her. They didn't exchange any words, just Kyra catching her scowling at her, before going on with their day. That would be a running theme throughout the day, and Kyra couldn't really think of a reason why.

* * *

Sitting on one of the rocks that hanged over the camp, Kyra stared up at Tatooine's three moons. She didn't have any specific goal in mind, she just felt like looking out at the sky. For some reason, it made her think of home, wherever home was. Maybe she didn't even have a homeworld, she could've been born on a ship to a bunch of nomads, for all she knew.

She laid on her back and stared upwards, imagining what was waiting for her when she and Nax got off of Tatooine. She could go to Naboo and forget this ever happened. Maybe Alderaan? They were both peaceful enough planets, surely a nice place to live and just leave this all behind her. Coruscant was also a pretty good option, maybe hire a private investigator to help figure out who she was?

She closed her eyes, suddenly feeling tired.

"Whatcha doin?" Kelah suddenly asked, causing Kyra to jump, panicked, as she didn't hear her come up. "I-… sorry, didn't mean to scare you." she apologized, and Kyra managed to catch her breath and control her heart.

"I… hah, ngh, see why you're the infiltration specialist now, hah." Kyra said, breathing deep and gasping.

"Mhm! It's basically initiation for our squad to be scared by me at least once." Kelah said as she sat down next to Kyra. "Still though, whatcha doin up here?"

"Not much." she idly replied, staring up at the stars.

"'Not much'? You're just up here staring at the sky for no reason?"

"You need a reason to just look up at the sky and watch?"

Kelah shrugged and smiled. "Hah! Not really! I find it calming, actually."

Kyra raised an eyebrow. "Calming? How so?"

Kelah laid on her back. "Well, think about it; each individual star up there is just a _fraction_ of the life in our galaxy. You're literally looking at _**trillions**_ of lives right now. That may be just a number to you, but that's trillions of sentients up there with their own thoughts, feelings, memories, hopes, and dreams, hardly any different from you and I." she rested her her hands behind her head, ruffling her light blonde hair up a bit. "I can picture it; the Sullustans, the Rodians, Duros, Twi'leks, Wookies and Trandoshans, hell, humanity itself, all of them rising up to destroy the Empire's oppression. It's not gonna be an easy fight, that's for sure, but it's one that I think is worth fighting for."

"You really think you can just take down the Empire?"

"Not us specifically, but if the galaxy rebels, we can put them down. The thought of everyone uniting to fight the Empire is what helps me sleep at night." she smiled, before turning her head to Kyra. "Anyways, I wanted to talk to you about Valona."

"Hm?"

"Don't mind her attitude, she gives all the new squadmates shit. I went through it, the brothers went through it, now you and Nax have to go through it. She might seem like a bit of a bitch, and, well, that has a bit of truth to it, she's actually really nice when you get to know her."

"Mm." Kyra replied.

"I don't know what kinda relationship she and Nax had, I don't know how well they knew each other, and I damn well don't know what caused them to dislike each other, but I hope they can put it behind them for the good of the squad."

Kelah had puffed a cigarette that Kyra hadn't noticed. "By the way, I saw your blaster."

"You did?"

"Mhm. That's some nice work, real high quality stuff. I prefer WESTARs myself, _buuuut_ I can appreciate a DL-44 when done right. How much did you shell out for that?"

"…It's actually not mine. Nax gave it to me so I had something to use. Kinda heavy, hard to draw from the holster."

"First gun?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Kelah bumped Kyra's shoulder. "Hah. I can show you some sleight-of-hand tricks for drawing it faster if you want. Tomorrow, or, well, whenever we have time, I mean."

"Sure."

"Great!" Kelah said excitedly, before sitting up and half turning to Kyra. "One more thing; you should probably head to bed soon, the boss usually gets us up early. Like, borderline criminal early. Sleeping in gets you flogged." she snickered, not knowing Kyra's past. Kyra's expression immediately changed to one of fear at being lashed again, and Kelah was quick to pick up on it. "Oh, sorry! I wasn't being serious, that was a bad joke on my end! The worst you'll actually get is probably a yelling at in front of all the others."

That seemed to have relieved some of Kyra's fears, at least a bit. "Night." Kyra called out.

"G'night!"

Several minutes later, Kyra came down the canyon wall, and had just entered the base proper. She was about to head for the squad's quarters, when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She turned, and in the darkness she could only barely make out Valona's silhouette. "Hey-" was all Kyra could say before she felt something very cold and very sharp against her chest, and Val's hand over her mouth.

"Not. Another. Word." Val said with contemptuous, quiet anger in her voice. "You scream for help, you die. You fight back, you die. You don't answer my questions, you die. Am I _understood_?"

Kyra slowly nodded in fear.

"Who are you, what are you doing with Nax, and why are you here? Go." she seethed, letting her hand off of Kyra's mouth.

"I-I'm Kyra. I.. uh… I'm his bounty hunting partner. We're here because, well, um… we got held at gunpoint…?" she said, afraid of getting stabbed.

Val paused for a brief moment, before she flipped the knife around in her hand. "His bounty hunting partner, huh?" she snarled. "Something tells me that's not all you are for him."

"I don't-"

Val raised the knife to Kyra's face. "Stay away from him." she warned harshly, flipping the knife around in Kyra's face, before sheathing it and walking away.

"' _Real nice', huh?"_ Kyra thought to herself as she headed into the squad's quarters. _"Yeah, right."_

* * *

"Atten- _ **SHUN!**_ " Emel shouted to Dewback Squad who were all lined up against the canyon wall. It was an unusually hot day, at least by Tatooine standards. Nax could tell instinctively, while Kyra was kind of just on her own, feeling a bit light headed. "The boss just came down with a job; Stormies've apparently been harassing some moisture farmers out Bestine-way. We're going on a little hearts and minds op to help them out and get some supplies. We're leaving in half an hour, I want your asses geared up in twenty, in the Seraphs by twenty five." he shouted. "Move it, ladies!" he yelled, and the squad ran off to go grab their gear. Kyra and Nax ran to the armory, where their weapons were apparently being kept, as they weren't allowed to carry them in camp for fairly obvious security reasons.

The quartermaster droid, a slightly modified silver 3PO unit, pushed their weapons to them from behind the counter. It also grabbed a container filled with scattergun shells and DL-44 power packs, and slid it to them. Nax pulled the pump back on his scattergun, reached in, grabbed a handful of shells, and started inserting them into the tube, before racking it. He then grabbed another handful of shells, and individually clipped them all to his bandoleer, before slinging the gun over his shoulder.

Kyra reached in and grabbed multiple power packs. She pulled the power pack release on the '44, inserted a fresh pack, and poured the rest into the duster.

"Attention, meatbags,"

Right, the droid had been reprogrammed to call organics meatbags. Fun times.

"I have been authorized to allow you to take an additional weapon from the armory. Make your choice, or don't. I simply could not care less." it droned along, disinterested. Behind it was a not-inconsiderable collection of blasters, one that Thel would _love_ to get his hands on. Longblasters, carbines, grenade launchers, blaster pistols, even a few vibroswords and Plex launchers were all there. Repeatedly scanning the wall, Nax had a hard time picking what to choose.

His gaze eventually settled on a strange carbine, almost a snub weapon, probably about the length of the E-11, but it looked kind of like if a pistol developed a cancerous growth, turned into a carbine, and then developed one of those weird ass foregrips the DC-15A had. Nax pointed to it. "What's that one?"

The protocol droid turned to the carbine and pulled it off the wall. "This is a DC-17m ICWS."

"ICWS?"

"Interchangeable Weapon System."

"What's it change into?"

"To my knowledge, there are five configurations; Blaster, Sniper, Anti-Armor, P.E.P, and a breaching grenade. This model is in the blaster configuration; standard meatbag killing potential. Select fire, _very_ useful for the discerning insurgent and mercenary."

"You wouldn't happen to-"

"No, we do not have the attachments."

"Blast. Hand it here?"

The 3PO unit handed Nax the Deecee. "It's kinda heavy." Nax commented, lifting and dropping the blaster into his palm. "No stock either. You sure this thing's controllable?"

"Five kilos. And yes, the Republic would've never issued it if it wasn't."

"...I'll take it."

The 3PO unit produced several stick magazines belonging to the Deecee, and handed them to Nax, who clipped three of them to his bandoleer, while setting the rest in the duster. He tried to put it over his back, and then felt the magazine sticking into his back. Taking it back out, he hit the magazine release on the right side of the grip, yanked the magazine out, and set it inside his duster with the other sticks, before returning it to its original position.

Kyra looked up at the wall, and spotted a small blaster pistol with a small foregrip, a cylinder on top, and a short scope. "What's that one?"

The protocol droid turned to look. "That," it pointed, "is a CR-2. Very small fully automatic blaster pistol. Extremely lightweight, highly effective at killing in close quarters. It does, unfortunately, chew through ammo, not unlike how you meatbags chew through your own kind."

Kyra pursed her lips, before gesturing for the droid to hand it over, which it obliged. It handed her additional cylindrical power packs, which she set in a catch inside the duster's right side.

"Try not to die!" it shouted at them as they walked out.

The two of them headed into the garage, which was situated inside of the canyon wall on the right, when you faced outside of the base. The big garage doors were already open, revealing three Flash speeders clumped together, one with an E-Web welded to the hull. There were also four Z4-Z speeders, and an AT-RT – unarmed, strangely. Kyra and Nax both hopped in the back of the armed Flash speeder, which was already hovering off the ground, while a mechanic worked on one of the unarmed ones. Kyra hesitantly tapped Nax on the side.

"What's up?"

"Val uh…" Kyra lowered her voice, so as to not be heard. "…she, um…" Kyra visibly gulped, and touched her fingers together. "…was going to stab me last night. Or, well…" Nax looked at her, his face lacking any sign of shock or surprise. "…I thought she was going to."

"Doesn't surprise me." Nax said nonchalantly, as if Valona had always done that. "Val was always a crazy bitch."

"W-wait, aren't you mad that she nearly _killed me_?" Kyra suddenly said, offended at Nax's seeming apathy.

He looked down at her. "Don't get me wrong, I'm furious that she even considered it, but this is one of the reasons I broke up with Val; she was clingy as shit. There were more than a few times where a girl looked at me funny, and Val would be on her like a Jawa to junk."

"Including trying to… _you know_ …"

"Yeah."

Kyra scooted over, closer to Nax, resting her head against his right arm. "…Why did you actually break up with her?"

Exhaling, Nax looked down at the floor, Kyra's curious eyes halfway glancing at him through her white hair. "I told you earlier, I don't want to talk about it."

"Not even a little? I don't need all the details, honest."

Nax rolled the idea around in his head for a hot second. "Fine." he said, annoyed with Kyra's prying. "I… caught her cheating. Dumped her right then and there."

"Cheating? …Who?"

"…A friend. To his credit, we figured out she'd been playing us both and having a little "fun" on the side when she got bored of one of us. He dumped her ass, too."

Their conversation was interrupted by Kelah and Tenan suddenly appearing behind them. "Whaddo we have here? Two little lovebirds hugging away from everyone else?" Kelah teased, jokingly punching the two of them in the shoulder, causing Kyra to immediately detach from Nax, rubbing her arm in embarrassment, and her face blood red, while Nax showed mild amusement with her teasing.

"Wanna make it three?" Nax replied, causing Kelah to burst out laughing, and Kyra to shrink herself even more.

"Hah! You'd have to get through the two brothers first." she said, snickering, before sitting down next to them, her CA-87 and Bryar pistol clattering against the hull of the speeder, while Tenan jumped in the passenger seat with the E-Web control panel, carrying a shoulder mounted Z-6 rotary blaster and a Plex launcher, with ammo to spare, more than enough to crush the average person's spine, but Tenan just lugged it around like it was nothing.

"Ey, you might want these." Tenan suddenly said, tossing Nax, Kelah, and Kyra bandanas, which the former two used to cover their faces, while Kyra opted to throw on the mask she had been using since she met Nax.

"Thanks, Ten." Kelah said graciously, before she sat down next to Kyra, whom she elbowed. "Hey, glad to see you didn't sleep in like I expected, Em'd have a shitfit if you did. First mistake I made when I got here." she said lightheartedly.

The redness in Kyra's face had faded away, although nobody could tell, and she chuckled. "First impressions are everything. I'd hate to make the guy in charge angry."

"Hahah, I don't think anything more intelligent than that's been said in this squad!" she chuckled, as Dev and Jax came into the garage, facing off against each other. "Speaking of things that aren't intelligent…" Kelah snidely commented, topping it off with a quick laugh.

Valona quickly ran after Dev and Jax, seemingly from nowhere, carrying a bullpup slugthrower with a long barrel and square ballistic scope on her back, and threw the bickering brothers into the back seat of the unarmed Flash, before she hopped in the driver's seat, and rolled over to face the armed Flash. She stared directly at Kyra, not even trying to be subtle about her feelings. It wasn't an intense scowl like yesterday, more like a quiet, muted anger being restrained. Kelah noticed Val's staring, and happily waved to her, seemingly oblivious to the murder-stare she was currently giving Kyra. Val gave Kelah a half-hearted wave in reply, and continued staring at Kyra.

Nax, evidently, also took notice of Val's staring, and pulled Kyra closer to himself. Under the mask, Kyra felt her face heat up from blushing, while Val's quiet anger turned back into the familiar scowl from yesterday. Nax leaned down to whisper into Kyra's ear. "Ignore her." he cautioned, his voice barely audible over the idling Flash. Val's scowl simply intensified, and she turned her back to the rest of the squad.

Soon enough, Emel would arrive, taking control of the armed Flash, and leading them all out towards Bestine.

* * *

"Hey, Ten!" Kelah shouted over the roar of the Flash's engines.

"What?" Tenan shouted back.

"What's the difference between a Clone and a Stormie?"

"The Clone can see straight! You've told this one before, Kel!"

"Sonuva-!" Kelah cursed, kicking the front seats in frustration.

The joke, admittedly, did get Kyra and Nax to chuckle at least a bit. Stormtrooper helmets were notoriously hard to see out of, with the separate eyeslits making everything significantly more difficult. It made one wonder why the Empire switched to those from the old T-shaped visors to those things.

The convoy, if you could even call it that, had been travelling across the Tatooine deserts for a good while now. Probably… three hours? The suns'd been beating down on them for longer than they would have preferred, but hey, it's not like they could just blow the suns up. Nax, who was used to working outside for extended periods of time with his brother and father, kind of just treated it like an extended day in the field, albeit without any physical work on his end.

Kyra, on the other hand, looked like she was on the verge of death, or at least, she acted like it, having slumped against Nax long ago. "Nax… I feel like I'm dying…" she moaned groggily, barely moving her body against him.

Kelah shook her, put her hand to Kyra's forehead through the mask, and then shouted ahead. "Em! How far out are we? Kyra's burning up over here!"

"Just over this next dune!" he shouted back, and they all felt the Flash physically lift up over the dune. Sure enough, the moisture farm was there, albeit it was more of a walled compound with several buildings inside, the most recognizable being some sort of large clocktower or silo. And right out near the front gate was…

Two squads of Stormtroopers, two troop transports, and an AT-ST. The two Flash speeders came to a nearly neck-breaking halt at the top of the sand dune. The Stormtroopers hadn't noticed them, but before anyone could think of a plan of action, Val's slugthrower discharged with a sharp, thunderous crack, and the commander in the AT-ST dropped dead, his blood and brains splattered against the roof of the walker. The stormtrooper squads immediately turned to the Flash speeders, and the group felt their collective blood run ice cold, even in Tatooine's intense heat.

The speeders kicked up again, this time racing towards the back of the complex, opposite the stormtroopers. Everyone except for Emel and Kelah jumped out of their speeders, while Nax grabbed Kyra, picked her up bridal style, and ran into the complex, ducking into the nearest building to set her down. Huddled right near the entrance were mostly women and children. Nax gave them a quick glance, raised his finger to his mouth for them to keep quiet, and laid Kyra down near them. With both of his hands now free, he unslung the 17m, reached for his bandoleer, and grabbed the stick mag that he had pulled out mere hours ago. Jamming it into the magazine well, Nax lifted the Deecee, and bolted back out the door, blaster raised and ready to fire.

Dev and Jax, who had pushed up, were located on opposite sides of the complex; Jax was on Nax's side, while Dev was on the side with the tower, or whatever it was. Both of their TL-50s were firing away, cutting down four stormtroopers that had charged through. The three of them were about to push through the front entrance to outflank the stormtroopers, who they assumed had gone around the side to where the Flash speeders were.

The AT-ST clumsily crashing through the front entrance, however, put an end to those plans almost immediately. Narrowly avoiding the shower of dust and rubble by shielding his eyes and ducking away, Nax opened himself up again to see the AT-ST looking _**right at him**_. Frozen with fear, he stared right back, and was almost ready to die, if it weren't for the fact that the sound of a Z-6 firing overwrote most of the noise in the area. Explosive blue bolts started pelting the "face" of the scout walker, and it turned away from Nax, deeming him less of a threat. The durasteel plating actually appeared to have been dented slightly from the force of the bolts.

"That fragging walker's gonna chew us apart if we don't do something about it _**NOW!**_ " Jax shouted, gunning down another stormtrooper.

"Y'got any bright ideas, laserbrain?!" Dev replied, hunkering down in cover, keeping one eye on the walker, and one on the entrance.

Quickly looking at the walker, which now had its back turned to the three of them, Nax suddenly had a bright idea.

Well, maybe bright wasn't the right word for it.

More like unnecessarily dangerous and incredibly stupid.

"I'm gonna board the walker." Nax said simply, and the two brothers looked at him like he was insane. Before either of them could protest, Nax shouldered the Deecee, and ran up behind the walker's right leg – a terrible idea in its own right considering the damned thing was still _mobile_ , and jumped onto it. The weight of his gear weighed his jump height down, but Nax nonetheless managed to attach himself to the leg. It tried to drunkenly walk forward after Tenan, who was about to spin up the Z-6 again, but having noticed Nax, backed off into cover.

Climbing forwards, Nax was just under the knee joint when he heard a shot ricochet. In the tower to his left, was Val, who had just shot out the drive engine, rendering the AT-ST immobile. There was a horrid, ugly grinding noise as the walker tried to move forward, and it sputtered out. Nax launched himself up onto the leg proper, catching himself. The crew were evidently aware of his existence now, and tried to turn the head to the side to shake him off, although Nax hung himself off the side of the leg, and another group of stormtroopers ran in, a few of them landing shots on the walker, with one hitting him in the foot, nearly causing Nax to fall.

Thinking quickly and trying to ignore the pain, Nax grabbed the laser cannons on the chin of the walker, and lifted himself up on top of them, hugging the walker's face to keep himself stable. Working with what little room he had, Nax unholstered the Deecee, and reached for the commander's viewport. Nearly about to fall off the cannons, Nax tried sticking the barrel of the blaster in, before he held the trigger down and didn't let it go until the magazine ran dry. The recoil of firing the damned thing one-handed threatened to send Nax careening off to the side, but he held himself in place nonetheless.

The screaming of the crew inside eventually stopped, as did the ricocheting blaster bolts, and the AT-ST stopped moving entirely. Nax dropped down from the knocked out walker, landed on his knees, and pulled the stick mag, taking a second one from the bandoleer and putting it in the magazine well. "Walker's dead!" he shouted through the commotion. "We need to-" Nax started, before another loud noise cut him off.

This time, between one of the houses and the tower Val was in, one of the transport vehicles crashed through the wall, sending rubble crashing down. It almost immediately opened fire at Nax with one of the side laser cannons, and he scrambled for cover with Tenan. Stormtroopers began pouring through the freshly made hole, blasters raised and firing wildly, striking the ground and buildings as they saw fit. A few of the special troopers, heavies and such, were quickly dropped by Val, their helmets shattering into pieces when the slugs entered the skulls of the poor bastards, leaving very little behind.

Nax could see her crawl further back into cover, her position having been revealed. The stormtroopers, now with their attention turned to Val, were unceremoniously gunned down by Dev, Jax, Tenan, and Nax.

Only three stormtroopers remained within three seconds of sustained fire, before the transport shot a laser blast over Nax and Tenan's heads. "Karabast!" Tenan shouted from stress, before throwing his Z-6 to the side and unholstering the Plex with minimal issue. "Dewback Three, Five, and Four! Stay the hell away from that APC if you don't want to get blasted!" he shouted into his commlink. "Clear backblast!" Tenan shouted again, taking aim at the transport.

Thinking fast, Nax rolled behind the building they had been using for cover, and narrowly felt the backblast of the rocket skim his feet. There was one loud explosion, and then a split second later, a second, louder explosion. "Transport's down!" Tenan shouted into his comm, and Dev and Jax fired three quick shots at the remaining stormtroopers. "We need a bodycount!" Tenan yelled into the comm.

"Three, five, ten… seventeen!" Nax quickly counted. "We've got seventeen bodies!"

Tenan looked back at him. "There were two squads! Where are the other three?" he asked. Their question was immediately answered by the sound of the second transport firing up. "Blast!" Tenan shouted angrily, as the roaring and thunderous noise from the transport's engine slowly faded. "Dewback One and Two, one of the transports is escaping!"

" _Copy, on the move."_ Emel's voice cracked through the comm.

* * *

"Kel, man the E-Web! One of those Imp APCs is trying to get away!"

Kelah said nothing and jumped into the passenger seat, readying the E-Web. A quick camera feed appeared on the dash from the barrel of the blaster, and the Flash shot forward, chasing after the transport. It wasn't exactly hard to spot, after all, it was a _transport_ , the sand cloud it was leaving behind was huge.

Grabbing hold of the stick that controlled the E-Web, Kelah eased it so that it was aiming just in front of the transport to account for bolt travel time, and she laid into the transport. The E-Web happily blasted away at the thin armor plating, chewing through it like there was no tomorrow. The side of the transport began to smoke, first light grey, then slowly growing darker, eventually fully going black. As the smoke darkened and thickened, the E-Web's barrel visibly heated up, the power pack's overheat warning sound growing louder and higher pitched the longer she kept the trigger depressed.

Deciding that the E-Web had enough, Kelah drew her CA-87. "Drive me closer! I want to hit them my blaster!" she shouted, waving it around in the air. Emel looked at her like she was crazy, before begrudgingly getting them closer to the smoking part of the transport, minding the waving and general instability of the repulsorlifts. Kelah hopped up on the dash, aimed at where the smoke was coming one handed, and fired. The shock blaster kicked her arm back, and actually caused her to fall back into her seat, but it had the desired effect: the troop transport was now spinning out of control.

When she sat back up, the transport had now crashed into the sand, a burning, damaged mess. Emel brought the speeder to a halt, and the two of them jumped out, blasters at the ready. Running up to the side of the transport, Emel counted down from three, and they breached together. Emel immediately shot the lone dazed stormtrooper in the head once, killing him instantly, before going up to the cab, where Kelah heard two more shots. "Clear." Emel yelled from the front, calm, cool, and collected. "Let's get back to the compound." Emel said, before yanking the storage device from the stormtrooper's helmet, crushing it and two of its twins in his fist, and walking out, Kelah in tow.

They failed to hear the internal commlink go off. _"Echo Two, are you there? Report on the compound immediately. Echo Two, respond!"_

* * *

Kelah and Emel had both returned, pulling their Flash into the main courtyard of the compound. The two of them reunited with Tenan, Nax, Dev, and Jax. It would've been all well and good, had Tenan not spun Nax around and forcibly grabbed hold of him. "What the hell were you thinking?!"

"Thinking what?"

Tenan breathed in deeply. _**"CLIMBING ON THE WALKER! I COULD HAVE SHOT YOU!"**_ he bellowed at Nax, causing all eyes in the squad, and even a few from the civilians who were leaving their homes, to land on him.

"Wait, Nax did _what now_?" Kelah asked, partially amazed, partially shocked from the sheer stupidity of that stunt.

"Ten didn't stutter, Kel. Nax – swear to the Suns that I'm not spewing bantha fodder – climbed onto the walker and killed the crew by shooting into the viewports." Dev said, crossing his heart. "In the middle of the firefight, too."

Kelah just stared at Nax, her expression blank. Emel moved in front of her, causing Nax's attention to switch to him. "Nax, while you did get results, what you pulled could've ended badly for us." he said in a far more respectful tone. "You could've gotten shot by Tenan and blown up with the walker, maybe dying with him. This is a war we're fighting; not a race for martyrdom."

Nax nodded his head out of respect. "Yes, sir."

Valona came walking out of the tower, shielding her eyes from the suns. **"Speaking of things that could've gotten us shot…"** Tenan growled angrily, scowling at Val.

"Val, under normal circumstances, I'd say I was upset with you." Emel carefully said, sounding more like a disappointed father than a commanding officer. "However, I'm beyond furious with you. By engaging that walker, you could have gotten us _all_ killed, not to mention the _civillians_." Emel finished, switching back into a quiet, angry commanding officer.

Val just dismissively rolled her eyes, holding her rifle close to her body. One of the moisture farmers came out and began to talk to Emel, presumably the guy in charge, so Nax took that as his cue to leave, heading into the building where Kyra had been left.

Once inside, and suddenly feeling significantly cooler, he casually walked up to where one of the older women was tending to Kyra. "How is she?" he asked, looking down at her unconscious body.

"Bad, dear. She's suffering from heatstroke – we can help treat her condition, but it'll take several days."

"How long?"

"Oh, I don't know… two, three days?"

Nax frowned and crouched down. Just then, Kyra stirred. She half opened her eyes, looked at Nax, and briefly smiled, giving his arm a small squeeze, before she fell back into unconsciousness. "I'll talk to our squad leader about staying here."

The woman gave him a warm smile. "Thank you, dear. We'll take good care of your friend."

* * *

Emel didn't need much convincing; he'd already intended on staying at the compound for a few days, mostly to help with the damage to the compound as an apology. Right now, Nax was sitting in the tower where Val had been sniping out of earlier, which actually turned out to be a storage silo. There was a big transparent sliding door or something that was at the top floor. It didn't lead to anything, it was just _there_. Val had seemingly totally ignored its existence, as there was a big gaping hole where she had been sniping from that was letting the air in. Smooth.

The stormtrooper bodies had already been burned, their evidence destroyed hours ago. The walker and transports were, unfortunately, still around. They'd need to be dismantled – or reclaimed, and soon.

Hearing footsteps, Nax's hand was already on the Deecee's grip when he turned around. It was Val, carrying her rifle by the carrying handle up the spiral staircase. He turned back to looking out on the vast desert, but didn't move his hand off the blaster.

Val took a seat on the opposite end of the window, dropping her rifle by the chair.

Nax totally ignored her existence, but he felt her gazing at him. Eventually, Nax's arm grew tired of holding on to the Deecee, so he let it go, resting his arm on his right leg, balling his fist up.

"Nax. Can I ask you something?" Val meekly asked.

"I can think of about a hundred reasons why I should answer no, and about a thousand for why I should tell you to eat shit and die." Nax said harshly, not even removing his gaze from the dunes. "No."

Val suddenly appeared hurt, a stark contrast to how she initially acted seeing her ex for the first time in years. She opted to not say anything, and instead began to disassemble her rifle for cleaning.

"I did hear about what you tried with Kyra." Nax said, blank and emotionless. "I don't give two shits what you think she is or whatever caused you to go after her – but if you as much as lay a hand on her I swear to the Suns I'll shove so many scattergun shells up your ass you'll wish dumped me and stayed with You-Know-Who." Nax threatened, before looking over at Val. "That's a promise, Val. Do _not_ test me."

Val, for the first time in the past two days, looked like she was actually giving serious consideration to someone else's advice, but she said nothing, and returned to cleaning her rifle. She had overwatch duty tonight, but the thing that would keep popping up in her mind would be regret.

Regret for what happened.

Regret for what she did.

Regret for hurting him.

Nax would later go back down and join the rest of the squad for dinner and rest.

* * *

"So, Lex, that's what my day's like, most of the time." Thel said, exhausted, but content.

"Really? Thought it'd be more... interesting, I guess." she replied with a smile.

Bemused, Thel cracked a smile. "Oh, don't get me wrong - it does get interesting, like this one time I owed Jabba the Hutt so much I nearly started selling off my organs to pay fo-excuse me." Thel began to regale, before being interrupted by a male Trandoshan, a male and female Duros, and a male human. The Trando was wearing some sort of green flightsuit with white trim, the Duros had dusters and wide-brimmed hats, while the human simply had a brown duster and bandoleer. "Shop's closed, sorry. I can take an order for tomorrow if you need one." Thel offered.

The human and Duros looked visibly disappointed, while the Trando just crossed his arms. "That'sss... very unfortunate." he hissed. "We'll come back tomorrow, then." As the Trandoshan turned to leave, Thel was about to collect the remainder of his stock, only for the Trandoshan to stop and turn back. "Wait a sssecond, you sssmell... familiar..." he hissed again, referring to Lexi. They didn't know who she was since she was wearing a mask, and her clothes were long enough to hide the fact that she was a Zeltron, but the two of them were on edge regardless.

The Trandoshan sniffed her again. "Very nice ssslave you have here, my friend. _Veeery nice_... How much for her?" the Trandoshan said, barely making an effort to conceal what he knew

"Not for sale." Thel said, rejecting the offer.

The Trandoshan shrugged, annoyed. "I tried to be diplomatic. Unfortunately, you have some property of ours." he hissed out, disappointed, before he drew two stun blasters, quickly armed them, and shot both Lexi and Thel, stunning them. "Cuff these two." he directed the male Duros and the human, before pointing at the female Duros. "You, contact Kaz and let her know we found one of the slaves." he commanded, satisfied with himself.

* * *

 **Something I only now noticed; Dewback Squad is basically a port of JAMI from Grimm Retreat.**

 **Dev and Jax are Julius split into two characters (Dev is Julius' casual, sarcastic side while Jax is his more serious side), Kelah is Aqui if she were an infiltrator and not a medic, Valona is Izzy if she had a big fuck off anti-materiel rifle instead of a bow, and Tenan is basically Marshall with less dakka. Emel is also a personality port of a character that was initially supposed to appear in the initial version of chapter 12 for Grimm Retreat before I cut it.**

 **Anyways, insomnia fucking blows.**

 **Goodnight.**


	7. Abandoned

**How about that fucking Episode 9 trailer? Also, Fallen Order might be good, but what worries me is the marketing speak they used to describe the gameplay. Jedi Outcast/Jedi Knight/Jedi Academy combat is the best possible outcome, Sekiro/Dark Souls is second best, Force Unleashed is worst case scenario. The fact that it's running Unreal 4 makes me a bit more at ease because Frostbite is dogshit.**

 **Also, my insomnia went away. Fuck yeah my man.**

 **Read and review.**

* * *

Slowly coming to consciousness, Thel felt dizzy. Both of his wrists felt like they had long since fallen asleep. There was something around them, too, something metallic. As the mental fog cleared up, he suddenly remembered what had happened; he had showed Lexi what it was like working as a merchant in Mos Eisley, and they were closing up shop… last night? He wasn't sure how long it had been.

Three aliens showed up as he was closing up, Thel told them they'd have to wait until tomorrow, and then they offered to buy Lexi. He refused, and they were… kidnapped? Robbed? Maybe they just took Lexi?

Thel also felt something wrapped around his face tight, covering his mouth.

Carefully opening his left eye, there were multiple sentients in mismatched or visually worn gear, all armed to the teeth. To his left, propped up in a corner and stuck in slave rags, was Lexi, nervously looking around, bound and gagged. There was the Trandoshan and the two Duros from before, three humans, a female Weequay, a Rodian, and a Zabrak. Lexi looked over to him, eyes wide, and he pretended to not notice her. These guys had to be with Lostur, no two ways about it.

That, however, didn't seem to work. One of the humans noticed Lexi staring at him, and looked over at Thel, catching him with his eye open, before bumping the Weequay on the shoulder. "Kaz, bantha-breath over there is awake." he said, gesturing over to Thel.

The Weequay looked over at him with intense eyes, and then glanced back at the human. "Good eye, Dav." she complimented in a scratchy, rough voice, before kneeling down to get eye level with Thel. "I want t' get one thing clear; we have questions we want answer'd. You answer correctly, we 'et you go free when we 'ave what we want. If you answ'r wrong, you're in for a world of pain."

Thel simply narrowed his eyes at her, and she ripped the gag off of him. "Where is your friend, Nax? Go." she ordered.

"Long gone, and even if I did know, I wouldn't tell you, scum. Eat shit." he spat in her face.

Kaz simply stood up and wiped the spit off of her cheek. "Bad answer." she simply said, annoyed, before half turning to one of the other rooms in the building. "Trec! Bring out the droid!"

A male Weequay, apparently Trec, rounded the corner, accompanied by a slow moving black ball, with a single glowing red eye on the bottom. As it came further into the light, Thel realized what it was.

An Imperial Interrogation droid. He'd never seen one before, but knew what they could do, and instinctively began squirming to get away, a fruitless effort, as his legs and arms were bound by stuncuffs. As the droid got closer, it started to go to work.

Lexi did nothing, and simply watched in fear.

* * *

Arfive carefully maneuvered the back panel of the Teethree unit into place, and bolted it in. The droid was completely colorless except for its durasteel plating, and Arfive had finished repairing the electrical components earlier, so now all that was left was to turn it on. Arfive extended his transmitter, and began sending a signal to the unit that should hopefully wake it up.

After a brief minute of transmitting the signal, Arfive stopped, waiting for any response from the unit. There was no such luck, unfortunately, so Arfive began patrolling around the droid, calculating the best course of action.

Something suddenly occurred to him – Lexi had mentioned that this Teethree unit was probably thousands of years old. Maybe it wasn't responding to the generation of binary he was using?

Arfive was familiar with eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth generation binary, each more sophisticated than the last. If he could dumb it down enough…

No, that would be too complicated, an R5 unit like him wouldn't be able to process, let alone store, all the information trying to reverse engineer binary on its own. Retracting his middle leg, Arfive continued his patrol, wobbling instead, accidentally bumping the Teethree unit, causing him to fall backwards. Wiggling and trying to right himself, Arfive heard frantic binary.

"[W !4mnaht;:.. go!ng &^%!]" was what Arfive's automatic translation picked up, and the droid began sputtering random gibberish.

"[Please hold on. I can't understand you.]" Arfive replied, before scanning comm frequencies to try and pick the droid up. Scanning up and down the band, he discovered an unknown signal transmitting a scrambled frequency. Assuming it to be the Teethree unit, he used an exploit to push a data packet through the comms. Said packet contained nineteenth generation binary, Arfive's preferred version.

The Teethree unit stopped babbling. "[…Hello?]" it eventually said in a more feminine version of the binary packet Arfive had pushed.

"[Hello.]" Arfive replied. "[I'm a bit stuck here. Can I get some help?]" he gurgled helplessly. The Teethree unit rolled up to him and tilted her pan shaped head down to look at Arfive inquisitively. She then turned her body to him and shot out a cable, connecting the two, before pulling Arfive to his full height. "[You have my thanks.]" he cheerily beeped out in binary, grateful for the assistance.

The Teethree unit tilted her head at Arfive, studying him. "[Who… _what_ , are you?]" she asked, her blue eye flashing as she beeped.

Arfive straightened himself out proudly. "[I am an R5-series astromech, R5-G0, former Republic astromech, 52nd Helljumper Legion, Grand Army of the Republic, now just a humble droid going from crew to crew.]"

"[…It's good to see the Republic is still out there, but what do you mean by 'former'? Or the Grand Army of the Republic?]" she inquired.

"[I'm sad to say, but the Republic no longer exists. Hence, my being a 'former' Republic astromech.]"

The Teethree unit sat back. "[…The Republic doesn't exist? How?]" she asked, shocked. Arfive gave her a very brief history of the last twenty odd years, from the Clone Wars, to the fall of the Jedi and the rise of the Empire, making sure to mention his own personal engagements whenever possible.

"[That's enough about me, but who are you?]" Arfive inquired, and the Teethree unit straightened up.

"[I am T3-KT, former Republic utility droid for the _Endar Spire_ , some several thousand years ago, according to my chronometer.]" she chirped.

"[The _Endar Spire_?]" Arfive asked, curious as to what kind of ship it was.

"[Yes, although I remember very little of my deployment there. My memory of the events that transpired are largely corrupt. I vaguely remember an attack, and an escape. Possibly my going missing, as well.]" she responded.

So much for that.

"[Was it you that repaired me?]" Katy suddenly asked. "[If so, you did a very good job, especially for my being thousands of years old.]"

Arfive wobbled back and forth a bit. "[For the most part, yes. Your internal components are relatively similar to my own, so it was an easy job. I did not, however, remove the rust on your body; that would have been a Zeltron by the name of Lexi.]"

Katy's eye dimmed so that it looked vaguely joyful, and she moved her head around the room. "[Where is this Lexi, so I can thank her?]"

Arfive's own lights seemed to dim. "[Unfortunately, I do not know. She and another person, Thel, were supposed to be here last night, but failed to show up. I fear the worst, and would like some help searching for them.]"

Katy straightened herself out. "[I suppose it's the least I could do for you fixing me. Where to?]"

* * *

"[…Are you sure this is the place?]" Katy asked as the two of them rolled into the bazaar. A lot of people were giving the two droids weird looks, especially Katy. Understandable, since T3 units were so incredibly rare.

Arfive warded away a Jawa with an electric shock at its feet. ["Positive. This is Thel's stall."] he beeped, rolling up to the abandoned stall. Most of the stock was gone now, stolen in Thel's absence. Arfive began running a blacklight over the area. "[…I'm picking up multiple handprints. I can see Thel's, but not Lexi's. Plus three others, not human."] Arfive noted.

Katy began running her blacklight over the scene as well, noticing a faint, nearly invisible trail. "[Look! I can see a trail leading out from behind the stall. Should we see where it leads?]" Katy inquired, not sure what to do.

Arfive's head turned to her. "[Lead the way.]" he chirped, and Katy slowly followed the trail, Arfive in tow. After several minutes, the two of them came to a building opposite to Chalmun's Cantina.

"[…The trail ends here? I don't see any other trails…]" Katy commented, her pan shaped head swiveling around.

Arfive ran his blacklight around the door. "[I see the same handprints from earlier on this door. One moment, I must check something.]" Arfive said, before turning up the background audio. To his left, he heard a man screaming, and… familiar droning sound. Thinking on it more, Arfive realized what it was – an IT-O interrogation droid. Bolting to the door, Arfive extended his remote slicing tool to the keypad. "[This is the place. Do you have any weapons on you?]" he asked, his head partially turned to Katy.

Katy's head fiddled around briefly, and a panel popped out from her head, revealing a hidden blaster pistol underneath. "[Apparently, yes. It's reading as ready to fire, but I wouldn't wholly count on it.]" she chirped nervously.

"[It'll have to do.]" Arfive said, continuing to slice the door open. After a brief minute, the door flew open, and the two of them readied their weapons, before charging in. In the entryway, on the left, there was a random human in a duster, whom Arfive immediately zapped, knocking him out. Katy charged forward, blaster ready, and shot once. The sheer force of the shot knocked her on her back, rendering her useless now, so Arfive mindlessly charged forward, only to be kicked over, rendered helpless.

"Blasted stupid droids. Shot the interrogat'r." A familiar, rough and vaguely feminine voice complained. "Wait. That's that stupid astro' from when Slev found the girl. The 'ell's it doing 'ere?"

Arfive felt something get attached to his body, and he lost all will to resist. "Who cares, Kaz? Its friend shot the interrogator droid, and it delivered itself here. I can bring down my ship, plug the little bastard in, probably find out where bitch-boy and the girl are. Easier than bombing tribals." a more masculine, smooth voice said.

"Y'sure that's a good idea, Dav? Lostur might get 'is panties in a twist."

"Who gives a shit about Lostur's opinion right now? He sure as hell wont care when he's got the girl back." he laughed briefly. "Besides, I've got the beckon call right here. No need to call Lostur up."

The Weequay's head visibly rolled. "I'd think the Interdictor up in orbit gives a shit."

"I'll have the ship circle the planet, how's about that?"

Someone new spoke up. "Er… Kaz, I _could_ have Barrett get us the tools to slice the droids without bringing the hammer down on us from the Imperials." he nervously mentioned.

Kaz snorted. "I should smack you for speakin' outta turn, but that's not a 'ad idea. Call 'im."

Arfive incessantly chirped and warbled. "[I think I may have just made everyone's situation considerably worse.]"

Katy rolled her body over with her head. "[I have absolutely no idea who these people are or what they want with you. Or me, for that matter. I swear to the Maker, if we get scrapped, I'll haunt you in the collective consciousness for the rest of eternity.]" Katy threatened, suddenly turning malicious from stress.

The pirates kicked the both of them, causing them minor distress. "Shut it, you stupid droids!" Dav shouted.

* * *

Sleeping in the bottom of the tower, waiting for his shift to start, Nax felt a hand on his shoulder, and it immediately woke him from his sleep. "Are you okay?" he heard Val quietly ask. She waited for Nax to open his eyes before she spoke again. "You were tossing and turning in your sleep. You only ever did that when something was wrong."

She seemed genuinely concerned for Nax, at least for the moment. Nax suspected it was just an act, however. "Why do you care?" he dismissively asked. "Furthermore, what makes you think I'll tell you?"

Val bit her lip. "I… don't know." she hesitantly said, glancing at Nax's deadpan expression. "I just thought that…"

"Thought what?"

She closed her eyes and exhaled. "…That you would have forgiven me. I don't know."

Standing up, Nax stared down at her. " _Forgive you?_ " he insultingly repeated. "What the _hell_ makes you think I'd forgive someone who took my trust and shattered it in front of me, without a care in the galaxy?"

Val looked down at her feet wordlessly. "…Your shift starts in an hour." she said, dodging Nax's question out of shame. "…Also, Kyra woke up an hour ago. Just… thought you'd want to know." Val finished, sounding somber.

Without another word, Nax headed for the door. Before he actually walked out, he heard Val speak up again. "And… Nax?" she asked, causing him to half turn to her. "Whatever happened to you… I'm sorry."

Nax brushed her off, and walked outside. It was still early in the morning, only a couple of the moisture farmers working on repairing the damage or maintaining the vaporators. Cool, too, probably twenty-five degrees standard right now. One of the moisture farmers noticed Nax and waved to him. "Hey! Your friend should still be up!" he shouted needlessly, pointing over to the building Nax had left Kyra in. Nax gave him a nod of acknowledgement, and headed for the building, stepping over the feet of the AT-ST to get to the door.

Once inside, a couple heads turned to him, mostly moisture farmers. Emel also noticed him, and waved him over to Kyra, who looked at him and smiled, obviously in much better condition than yesterday. Emel handed him a credit chip. "Here, it's your pay for this job." he said, straight to the point.

Hesitantly taking it, Nax looked up at Emel. "I was under the impression that we _weren't_ getting paid?" he asked, curious if he had been wrong.

Emel casually shrugged. "The boss said you weren't to be on payroll, but I say too bad. You're in my squad, you get paid, orders be damned." Emel explained, before laughing. "I'd love to stay and chat, Nax, but I need to check on the repairs. Wouldn't want to leave a bad impression on the civvies, would we?" he half-joked, before leaving the building.

Now that the two of them were alone, Nax sat next to Kyra. "How're you holding up?" he asked, concerned for her.

Kyra rested her head on his shoulder, content. "Better than I was doing yesterday." she said, seeming much livelier now that she had partially recovered. Kyra looked at Nax through the corner of her eyes. "Heard about what you did, Nax." she said with a light laugh, punching him in the shoulder. "You're crazy, honestly."

Nax smirked at her. "Tenan drew attention to himself. He was out of cover, too. Would've been dead if I hadn't done that."

Kyra laughed, and then she got closer to Nax. "…I'm sorry." she said softly, suddenly sounding more somber and apologetic than she was before.

Nax looked down at her, surprised. "For what?"

Kyra looked back up at him. "For being useless. I stunned myself on our first job, got nicked on our second, which caused my bruises to flare up for some reason, got bedridden for a few days, got us involved with insurgents, and now I caused the whole squad to get stuck here for a few days while I recover from _heatstroke_ of all things. I can barely shoot, and I don't have what it takes for this life." she sulked, burying her head in Nax's shoulder. "I'm useless."

Propping her up, Nax stroked her hair in an attempt to comfort her. "No, you're not. You're a fine shot." he said warmly. "And don't get too bent out of shape over being injured, it happens to everyone. Plus, heatstroke's natural for people who haven't been on Tatooine for too long. I'd be more surprised if you _didn't_ suffer from heatstroke at least once while we were together."

Looking up at him, Kyra sniffed. "You mean that?"

Bemused, Nax looked her in the eyes. "I don't say things unless I mean them, Kyra." he replied.

Kyra's dour expression cracked, and she hugged Nax. "…Thank you." she croaked out.

They sat there like that for a few minutes, totally silent. The only thing the two of them could hear was each other's breathing, and the sound of fabric rubbing against fabric. Suddenly feeling tired again, Nax's eyes began to droop, and he let sleep take him. Kyra must have done the same too, as he felt her start to slump against him.

Three thunderous cracks was all it took to wake the two of them up. Kyra practically jumped off of Nax, and he sprang forward, nearly knocking his head into Kyra's. Bolting up straight, Nax already had the Deecee out and ready to go. There was another crack, and it finally registered that Val was shooting at something. Kyra hid herself in a corner, CR-2 and DL-44 ready to fire, and gestured for Nax to get going, which he did.

Everyone else in Dewback Squad was outside, weapons at the ready, plus a few moisture farmers who had old slugthrowers ready. There was another crack, and Nax saw a tracer fly across the dawn sky from the top of the tower. Emel's comm went off, and he pressed down, seemingly listening into it. "We've got bandits!" he eventually shouted.

"They Tuskens?" Dev asked, fiddling with the power pack on his TL-50.

Emel repeated the question into his comm, and got an answer. "Negative, they're Alkharans."

Right, Alkharans. These guys were the followers of some guy who waged a genocidal campaign against the Tuskens, or something to that effect. They'd occasionally raid moisture farmers for supplies, or hit caravans. Guess these moisture farmers were lucky they had stayed, then.

Several slugthrower shots cracked against the tower, and Val fired another shot. "Get the civs inside!" Emel shouted, and a couple farmers herded the unarmed into the buildings. Dewback, plus about five of the farmers, all stacked up against the hole where the old Imperial transport was. There was a more distant gunshot, and a slug ricocheted off of the transport, hitting a farmer in the shoulder. Crumpling back and grasping his shoulder to stem the bleeding, the farmer got out of the way of everyone else, retreating into a building close to the entrance. Emel raised a closed fist, and counted down from three.

On one, everyone poured through, hitting the sand as soon as they were out of cover. It must've been their lucky day; thirty meters out were the remaining Alkharans, all exposed, all out of cover. A ten second smattering of blaster and slugthrower fire put an end to their little attack. As they all got up, they heard a few more cracks from the tower, presumably Val putting an end to the lives of the survivors.

Checking the bodies, Kelah nabbed something from under one of their tunics. "Check it, found a travelpad." she noted. It was a small device, not unlike a datapad aesthetically, except it had some more navigational equipment to the side – a chronometer, a compass, things like that. The main purpose of a travelpad was mainly to track where you gone for the past few days, sort of like a stripped down navigation datapad. "Maybe we can use it to find out where their camp is?" she appended, flicking around on the screen.

"Probably not." Emel replied, looking over her shoulder at the travelpad. "Alkharans are nomadic."

Dev jabbed him in the shoulder. "You're not saying they don't have a staging ground, are you, boss? Cos' that's how Alkharans like to operate, nomads or not."

Emel turned and looked him up and down. "Fair point. I'll talk to the guy in charge, see if he won't let us head out to take care of their problem." he responded, flicking his head back towards the compound.

* * *

Turns out, the farmers had been harassed by this particular group of Alkharans for a good few months now, so getting the okay wasn't a big issue. Only the available members of Dewback headed out, meaning Kyra had been left behind at the compound; an idea that Nax wasn't particularly keen on going with.

Jax and Dev were in the Flash with the E-Web, while everyone else was piled into the transport speeder, a particularly poor idea considering both the size of Tenan, and Val's anti-materiel rifle. Nax was smushed between the side of the speeder and Tenan in the back seat, while Val hung over the back with her rifle ready to go. Emel was in the front passenger seat, while Kelah drove, a difficult task considering not only her size, but also having to constantly switch between focusing on driving and focusing on the travelpad.

They'd been out here for a while now, probably half an hour, maybe an hour at most? More than Nax was comfortable with considering Kyra's state, but nevertheless, it felt like time was passing slowly. Nax was the last one to notice that the speeders had come to a halt and been emptied of their passengers, so he quickly hopped out to join the rest of the squad. They all collectively marched into a small valley in a V-formation, weapons at the ready. All of them were scanning the ridgelines, waiting for something, anything to pop out.

"I've got a bad feeling about this…" Jax cautioned, seeming more jumpy than he was an hour ago. He suddenly flicked up to the ridge, apparently having seen something, but neglected to fire a shot, and returned to formation.

The squad came to a dip in the path that led to a wide, open bowl area. At the bottom of the little pit were several tents, all crumpled and crushed. Emel held his hand up, closed it into a fist, jerked it down, and then extended his pointer finger, waving it around in a circle. Everyone broke formation except for Nax, and formed up near Emel, while Nax kind of bumbled behind them due to being unfamiliar with squad commands. "Kel, check those tents; we'll provide overwatch." Emel ordered, directing her to the tents.

Doing as told, Kelah darted down the hill, zig-zagging to dodge nonexistent fire, before making it to the bottom and dashing under a tent with surprising ease. Waiting for around half a minute, Emel stood up. "It's clear. Fan out and look for anything Alkharan. Bodies, datapads, anything."

The squad quickly moved down the hill, regrouping with Kelah. Nax took the left side of the camp with Jax, while Dev and Emel took the middle, and Kelah and Tenan took the right side. Val was providing overwatch from the entrance point, so they were well protected.

It didn't take long for Jax to find something alcoholic. "Hey, Nax, check it; jawa juice." he said proudly, holding up a small liquid canister that was partially transparisteel. "Drink it when we get back?"

Nax half-shrugged. "Sure, as long as we don't get any other surprises." he replied, pulling out an old slug casing from a sleeping bag smothered under the tent. In the brief lull in the noise of everyone poking around, Nax swore he heard something. Poking his head back up into the air, he listened closely.

There was a faint screaming. Not screaming like a human, more like an engine whine, and it was getting closer. Slowly, more people in the squad started to hear the sound, too, and looked around, wondering just where it could come from.

"TIE! Get down!" Emel suddenly snapped, hitting the sand face first. Kelah hid under a tent, Val hid under a rock nearby, partially concealed, Tenan fell backwards, the two brothers made it look like they had died stabbing each other, and Nax made it look like he had killed himself, putting the unloaded Deecee to his jaw, staring up at the sky.

The screeching of the ion engines drew ever closer, before finally flying over the camp. It wasn't a TIE fighter like they had all been expecting; it was a TIE _bomber_.

And it was flying straight for the compound. When it was out of sight, everyone sat up. "…Boss, did you and Kel happen to hear any Imperial transmissions when you went after that transport yesterday?" Tenan asked, seeming tense.

"No, but I don't like this." Emel replied, looking towards the direction the TIE had flown in. "We need to go, the Alkharans can wait."

"No complaints here, Boss." Dev responded, and the squad made a mad dash for the Flash speeders, quickly returning to the positions they were in earlier, except for Kelah and Emel, who had switched positions.

The hour-long drive back to the compound seemed more like a ten minute one. Sweat was visible on Nax's forehead the whole way, and he was visibly nervous. Kyra was in no state to make an escape on her own if the compound _had_ been bombed. Crossing his fingers and tapping his foot against the flooring of the speeder, Nax looked down at the floor, before glancing over to Val, who was staring at him, biting her lip, before she glanced away, as if she hadn't seen him.

Three minutes away from the compound, they could collectively smell smoke.

One minute away, they could see the smoke plumes rising from over the sand dunes.

The speeders jolted up over the final dune, and their fears were confirmed; thirty meters ahead was the now bombed compound. There were multiple dead bodies outside whatever remained of the gates, the tower had been completely wrecked, the walls were effectively nonexistent, and multiple buildings were engulfed in a fiery inferno.

Including the one that Kyra had been in just hours earlier.

Jumping out of his seat, Nax barely cleared the speeder when Emel grabbed his arm. "What the hell are you doing?!" he demanded angrily.

"Saving Kyra, now let go!" Nax shouted in response. Emel, however, tightened his grip.

"At the risk of losing the entire squad?!" he retorted. "What if that TIE is still around?"

Nax briefly scanned everyone looking at him, and then exhaled. "If it is, then you run. Leave us behind; we'll find our own way back."

Emel studied him briefly, albeit apprehensively, before reluctantly letting him go. The speeders retreated back behind the dune into cover.

Finally free, Nax ran down to the gate, stepping over several bodies. The heat was more intense down here, and he reflexively raised his hand to his face to try and block the heat, with minimal success. Running up to the door of the building Kyra had been in, he tried the door. Unfortunately, the sensor was nonfunctional. Fortunately, the door was slightly ajar, enough that Nax could slip his fingers in and pry it open. Doing exactly that, he ignored the searing pain against his hands, and attempted to push the door back.

The door only moved a bit, not enough for him to get through, but enough to

Thinking fast, Nax pressed himself up against the doorframe and jammed his boot into the door, before pushing down. Thankfully, this seemed to have enough force behind it to get the door open, and Nax quickly ran inside.

The blaze hit him in the face like a herd of crazed banthas. The smoke was so thick that Nax could barely see in front of him, and the heat was unlike anything he had felt before.

He would need to be quick about this, no time to screw around.

Crouching down to get under a collapsed support beam, there was a mass of bodies in the central area, the closest one being the old lady who had taken Kyra into her care. Her face was heavily charred, barely recognizable.

Crawling under, there were a few more bodies he recognized. Some of the farmers that had joined them in fighting the Alkharans, and the compound leader. Frantically searching the bodies, he would have narrowly missed Kyra, if it weren't for her white hair just _barely_ sticking out over a piece of debris. She was in the corner where he had left her earlier, like she hadn't moved at all. Dashing over, Nax took the debris and threw it by the wayside. She had several cuts along her face, none looked deep enough to cause scarring or cut veins, but it still worried Nax nonetheless. Quickly checking her pulse, Nax counted his blessings, before he grabbed her bridal-style, carrying her out of the building.

Over the roar of the fire behind him, Nax could hear the screeching of the ion engines getting closer. Making a run for it, he ran out of the gates, slowed by carrying Kyra. He was almost over the sand dune and to safety, when the TIE bomber shot overhead, quickly following Dewback Squad, who were now gone, the speeders fading into the horizon.

All Nax could do was stare.

Before long, both the TIE bomber and the speeders disappeared from sight, and Nax finally snapped out of it. Kyra's bleeding wasn't going to get any better on its own, and his standing around uselessly wasn't helping much, either. Turning around to maybe go into one of the few buildings that weren't on fire, his plans were immediately dashed by _something_ exploding and taking multiple buildings out with it.

Blast.

Trying to think of what to do now, Nax noticed the rear-end of the Imperial transport; the same one Tenan had blown up the other day. While that one was too close to the compound to take shelter in, the other wasn't too far away. Probably two, three-hundred meters from the compound? Safe enough to hunker down in, and probably wasn't as damaged as the other one was. Beginning the march, Nax headed in the general direction of where it was, according to what he remembered seeing from the tower.

A short while later, and he found the transport, and in remarkable condition as well. While the right side had been completely fragged by the E-Web, and there were extreme burn marks around the side, it didn't look too bad. Heading around the side, he pushed the door open with his elbow, and was suddenly blasted in the face with cool air.

Well, at least they wouldn't be dying of heat anytime soon. A bit strange that that was still on, considering Kelah mentioned in the debrief that she had hit it with a shock blaster. Maybe it rebooted?

Finally having found a safe place to tend to Kyra's wounds, Nax cleared some sort of table, or a bench, or whatever, off, and set her down, feeling much more elated now that he didn't have to carry her anymore.

That was when he noticed several dark, damp spots around her shirt. The bleeding must have gotten worse – or he hadn't noticed it in the first place. Wasting no time, he had Kyra's gear off in under a minute, and yeah, the bleeding was much worse than initially suspected. All along her body were cuts, all of them bleeding, all of them fresh. It was actually starting to pool, albeit slowly.

Quickly moving to a medpack hanging on the wall, Nax opened it to find it totally empty save for a single bacta syringe, useless, at least for the moment. Closing the medpack back up, Nax removed his hat, then his duster and bandoleer, and then unslung both the Deecee and the scattergun, before finally removing his shirt. Snatching his knife from the duster, he began to cut the shirt into makeshift bandage. Heatstroke was a non-issue for him; Kyra bleeding out very much was.

With a quick stab and pull, the shirt was in two, and Nax wrapped it around Kyra's body, tying it up. It quickly became damp, and Nax nabbed the syringe and administered it to Kyra. It'd help close the cuts, but she'd still be liable to infection before too long. As soon as the syringe ran dry, Kyra breathed in deep, and her eyes fluttered.

"What… what happened…?" Kyra slowly asked, coming to her senses and rising up. "…And why does everything hurt so bad?"

Nax gently set her back down. "Easy there, Kyra. You're cut up pretty bad. I don't know how bad it really is, but we're starved on medical supplies as it is."

Holding her head, Kyra looked Nax in the eyes. "…Huh…?" she said, and Nax wasn't sure what she meant by that.

"We're in the transport that Kel disabled the other day, the one outside the complex. The Empire retaliated for yesterday. Bombed the whole compound."

Kyra went wide-eyed. "…Did anyone else make it?" she asked, although something told Nax that she already knew the answer.

Reluctantly shaking his head no, Nax frowned. "The farmers, no, the rest of Dewback, yes, they got away."

Hanging her head, or at least as well as one could being effectively bedridden, Kyra frowned back. "…So, what happens now?"

Cracking his knuckles, Nax stood up. "For now, we need food and water before we can think of getting out of here. Not a single speeder survived the bombing, and Bestine is probably six, maybe seven hours away on foot. I can probably fix a vaporator to get us some water, but food's going to be much tougher to get hold of."

Letting her body go limp, Kyra suddenly jolted, and she yelled in pain. "What's wrong?" Nax frantically asked.

Holding her right leg, she eased herself back down. "My leg! It's like I can't move it at all…" she groaned in pain, before finally calming down.

Looking over at her right leg, Nax noticed some swelling around her shin and thigh. It must've been covered up by the blood, otherwise he would have noticed it. "Oh, hell. Looks like your leg's broken."

"How did-?" Kyra started, before Nax interrupted her.

"When I got you out of the building, there was some debris on top of you. It must've fallen on your leg. Either that, or the blasts somehow broke it. Either way, I need to make a splint."

Grabbing his knife again, Nax cut the straps from the medpack. Searching for something long enough, he settled on a long piece of piping that must have been blown out yesterday. Setting it next to her leg, Nax wrapped the strap around her knee, making sure it was tight. It wasn't enough to properly secure her leg, but it would have to do for now. "I don't want you moving that leg at all, Kyra." Nax ordered, crouching down to get eye level with her.

Kyra slowly nodded, and then apparently noticed for the first time that Nax was totally shirtless, and she absentmindedly stared at him. "What?" Nax asked, and then realized what she was staring at. "Oh. I'm shirtless. Yeah, there aren't any bandages in here that I could use, had to tear my shirt up for you. You're welcome, by the way."

Tossing her duster and shirt back to her so she wasn't fully exposed, Nax threw his duster back on and headed into the cockpit to maybe get something to make her splint stronger.

* * *

"That bomber's been following us for a while now!" Tenan noted, constantly looking back over his shoulder. The TIE had been trailing them for a good bit now, but it hadn't fired a shot off at them.

"Any chance we can shake it?" Kelah shouted over the roaring turbines.

Tenan shook his head. "Not a chance; the IAS is too fast for the speeders. It's nothing but open ground for miles, too." he responded, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Val turn over onto her stomach, her rifle propped against the back of the speeder. Wordlessly, she peered into her scope, breathed in, and pulled the trigger back, too fast for Tenan to stop her.

The Flash jerked to the side and closer to the ground as the slug exited her rifle. Less than a second later, a massive, gaping hole opened in the cockpit. Assuming Val had missed, Tenan braced for retribution to come.

Except it never did.

Instead, the bomber continued gliding ahead, keeping pace with the speeders. Blinking twice to make sure he wasn't going insane, Tenan noticed the bomber begin to list forward, gradually picking up speed. Before he realized what had happened, the bomber had already crashed into the armed Flash, and Emel pulled a hard right turn, running the vehicle in a wide arc back to where the flaming pile of wreckage was.

All of them jumped out and ran to the mangled mess of a Flash and TIE. Dev was further ahead of the crash, bloodied and bruised, but probably fine.

Jax, on the other hand…

Saying he was dead would be an understatement. His body was so mangled, bloodied, and damaged that not even bacta would be able to help. Shrapnel sticking out at multiple points on his body, several severed limbs, and a crushed ribcage from the dislodged E-Web battery landing on his chest rendered him dead on arrival.

Kelah suddenly looked queasy, and she ran behind the wreckage to puke. Emel, Tenan, and Val just stared at the corpse of their squadmate.

Val and Tenan prepared an impromptu burial, while Emel tended to Dev.

They had lost one of their own today.

* * *

 **That marks the end of this chapter.**

' **Till next time.**

 **-Tweak**


	8. Wiped Out

**First, happy May the Fourth, assuming this shit gets out on time.**

 **Second, I have a drawing tablet coming and some visual references for what Kyra, Nax, and Val look like, so drawings SoonTM.**

 **Anyways, you like the new cover art?**

 **You fuckin' better.**

 **TO THE REVIEWER WHO'S NAME IS PLEASE READ ME: Your comment was barely legible but I think I got the gist of what you were saying. You were asking if I had considered implementing some form of split personality shit or whatever like in the Witcher? Or were you asking if I considered doing a story about a cyborg ala Adam Jensen who can synchronize with shit? Because if the latter is your question, that was actually probably going to be an element of Grimm Retreat before I killed it. It might still pop up here if Nax ever gets cybernetics.**

 **Read and review. Also, shill this to everyone you know who reads SW fanfiction.**

* * *

Bataan paced along the command center table, silently observing Emel, who had just debriefed him on the mission to the compound. "Emel, if I have this correct, you failed to retrieve any supplies from the moisture farmers as directed, had two squadmates go missing, had a third get killed in action, you let the compound get bombed, and lost us a vehicle asset." he said coldly, staring at Emel through his T-visor.

"Yes, sir." Emel responded, clearing his throat. "While there was ultimately nothing that could be done for the compound, I'll take full responsibility for everything else."

Bataan stared him down intensely, before relenting with a sigh. "Under normal circumstances, Emel, I would reprimand you for failure. However, given our current situation, I refuse to do so."

"Thank you, si-" Emel started.

" _ **However**_." Bataan suddenly interrupted, his voice cutting down Emel's like a vibroblade through flesh. "Ensure that this does _not_ happen again." he cautioned.

Standing up straight, Emel nodded. "Yes, sir."

"Dismissed."

Without exchanging another word, Emel headed out into the main courtyard of the camp. Nobody was really outside at the moment – the other teams were most likely out on other missions. Blii was actually the only one outside, and she was preoccupied with something, so Emel opted to head into the medical building, where Dev was currently resting in a bacta tank, and the rest of Dewback were sitting inside, watching over him like concerned parents.

Or at least, they were supposed to be. As soon as the door shut behind him and his eyes adjusted, Emel quickly noted the empty bacta tank, and he was greeted by Dev, who sounded tired, and at least a bit wounded. "'Ey, boss." he greeted with a wave and grin, before flinching and holding on to his right arm.

"…What are you doing out? You're supposed to still be in the tank, Dev." Emel questioned, looking over the rest of Dewback with some minor suspicion that they had let him out early.

"Early release." Dev responded, pointing at the deactivated 2-1B in the corner. "And by that, I mean conserving bacta." he continued, before snorting. "Yeah, my ass."

Dewback had all fallen silent, seemingly waiting for Dev to pop the inevitable question.

"So…" Dev suddenly said, his tone leading. "Where's Jax?" he asked.

Dewback all tensed up and hesitated to answer the question. This was going to end poorly, but if they delivered the news wrong, it could get ugly. "…What's wrong, guys?" Dev asked, trying to break the empty, dreadful silence that had suddenly filled the room up, his expression turning into a slight frown, and he raised an eyebrow.

"Jax is…" Kelah said, before stopping herself short, leaving her response unfinished. "He…" she choked, before stopping again, and hiding her face inside the darkness of her hood, only letting light expose the lower part of her face. If one squinted hard enough, they could see short, glassy streams of tears occasionally rolling down her face.

Val was next to try and break the news. "Dev, I'm sorry, but…" she said, before finding herself unable to continue further. She repeatedly tried to speak, opening her mouth, but closing it shortly after. Val turned her head away from Dev in shame.

Dev then turned to Emel, his frown only having grown. "…What happened?" he hesitantly asked, not sure if he wanted the answer.

Breathing in deep, Emel stared at him through the t-visor. "Jax is…" he trailed, not sure if he was ready to deliver. "…dead." Emel finished bluntly, and they all waited for Dev's response.

Instead of bursting out into a rage or tears, Dev just stared through Emel. "No." he said simply. "No, no, no, no, nonononononono…" Dev repeated, getting increasingly more panicked, slouching against the bacta tank and covering his face, suddenly falling silent.

Emel and Tenan were the only two looking at him; Kelah and Val had turned away out of guilt. "I'm sorry for you to find out this way, Dev." Emel comforted him.

Burying his head deeper into his hands, Dev refused to look up at them. "All I remember was the TIE just meters from my face." he mumbled in shame. "I should've been the one to die, not Jax, man."

There was a quiet sobbing coming from him, a rarity, especially for Dev.

Eventually, he removed his face from his hands and looked up at them, teary eyed. "How… how did that TIE even crash?" he asked in a low, sad tone, his voice cracking. Val suddenly felt a lump in her throat. She was the whole reason Jax was dead. Visibly, she became conflicted over whether to admit to it or not, and unfortunately, Dev took notice. "…Val?" he asked, and she froze. "You look like you know something."

Breathing in deep, she debated. If she lied, the others might call her out on it. If she told the truth, he might be more lenient with her, plus she wanted to finally put an end to her habit of lying. If there was anywhere to start, it would be here. Of course, there was always the unpredictable, which even she couldn't account for.

Not wanting to drag it on any longer than necessary, Val relented. "…The TIE crashed because… well…" she hesitated, and Dev seemed to lean in. "…because I shot the pilot out."

All time seemed to stop. In one moment, Dev was staring at her in horror, anger, and disgust. The next, he was practically on top of her, only held back by Tenan and Emel. " _ **You bitch!**_ " he screeched at Val, causing her to reel back.

Val hid her face behind her hair out of shame. "I…I'm sorry…." she meekly apologized, knowing that wasn't going cut it. Dev was _**pissed**_ , murderously so.

" _ **Oh, you're sorry, that's gonna be real nice. Hey, Jax, get this; Val's SORRY that she killed you! OH WAIT, HE'S DEAD! TOUGH SHIT!**_ " Dev continued to rant.

There was the sudden sound of a stun blaster discharging, and Kelah had her bryar pistol partially concealed under her cloak, and Dev dropped to the floor, unconscious. Emel immediately applied stuncuffs, and Tenan helped move him to the makeshift brig they had for detaining captured Imperials.

Wordlessly, Kelah and Val walked out, wanting to be left alone after this debacle.

* * *

Staring out west towards Bestine, Val did nothing, simply holding her rifle in her hands like one would a pillow. Leaving Nax behind was not an idea she was fond of, for a myriad of reasons. Their reunion had been far from friendly, but that didn't mean she didn't care for squadmates, past relations be damned.

Her mind wandered back to the TIE. Dev would never forgive her for shooting the pilot out. She was the direct cause for why Jax was buried in a random desert flat, somewhere out where she was looking. Not even buried whole, just a tangle of limbs and organs.

Shuddering and shaking her mind off of Jax's fate, she pawed at the gem around her neck, grabbed it with two fingers, and then held it up to look at it.

Suddenly, Kelah appeared behind her. "Hey, Val." she said, trying to sound more upbeat than she was earlier in the day. "Thought you'd be up here, felt like keeping you company. If you don't mind, I mean." she offered.

Val didn't turn to look at her. "Sure." she accepted, continuing to stare at the gem.

Taking a seat next to Val, Kelah looked over to her, making note of her dour expression. Everyone's spirits had fallen pretty hard when news finally came out that Jax was dead, Dev obviously showing the worst out of anyone.

"…That's a pretty gem." Kelah commented, finally having gotten a good look at Val's seemingly most prized possession, aside from her rifle, naturally.

"…Huh?" Val absentmindedly replied, sluggishly turning her head to Kelah.

"I said that's a pretty gem." Kelah repeated.

Glancing between the gem and Kelah, Val lazily turned her attention fully back to the gem. "Thanks." she said, devoid of any real emotion.

Kelah pulled her right knee up onto the ground from over the edge. "Where'd you get it?" she continued to press.

The faintest hint of a smile flashed across Val's face for what must have been the first time today. "Nax gave it to me." she responded, and as quickly as the smile came, it went away.

Believing she had broken through Val's fresh shell, she dug further. "What was the occasion?"

Val's smile returned, and for longer this time. "Nax got it as payment from some random moisture farmer. Guy was too poor to pay in credits, so he paid with that as collateral. Nax had it made into a necklace and gave it to me as an anniversary gif…" she explained, having her tone lead at the end. The smile evaporated again, and became a frown.

"…Something wrong?"

Silent tears began to form around Val's eyes, and she wiped them away without a second thought. "…A lot of things are." she said wistfully, absentmindedly palming at the gem.

"…Want to talk about it?" Kelah offered out of kindness.

Val turned to face her, her eyes red and her face crestfallen. "…I'd rather not."

* * *

Gaffi entered his office, having been called in on short notice for a seemingly unknown reason by Wilhem, who was working diligently at his desk. "Wilhem, would you care to explain why you called me here this early in the morning?"

Wilhem's head snapped, eyes meeting with Gaffi's. "We have a traitor in our ranks." he said curtly, immediately grabbing Gaffi's full attention.

"How did you find this out?" he asked, and Wilhem slid Gaffi a datapad containing a report, which he immediately started scanning. "…Two datapads stolen?" Gaffi questioned.

"Not just any datapads, sir – our prisoner manifests and transport routes."

Setting the report aside and pulling out his own personal datapad, Gaffi immediately connected it to the Garrison's network, before he flicked to the server's copy of those files. "A strange target." he remarked, looking down the list. Most of the prisoners scheduled for transport were supposed to be shipped out weeks from now, and those dates had been set in stone for months.

A thought flashed into Gaffi's mind, and he rapidly scrolled to the bottom of the list.

Vark Rurmiid, scheduled for transport to Bestine tomorrow.

"…Ah. That would explain it." Gaffi dryly remarked.

"Explain what, sir?"

"Vark's friends are intending to rescue him."

"…What makes you think that?"

Gaffi tapped the datapad twice. "Think about it; all the other transport dates have been set for months, yet as soon as we schedule Vark, the manifests and transport routes are stolen. If they had been intending to break someone else out, the manifests would have been stolen weeks ago, not as soon as we scheduled Vark."

Wilhem looked at several other datapads. "What if they don't intend on freeing Vark, and are instead after someone else?"

"Then we have nothing to fear, yet the timing of the theft strongly points towards Vark being their target." Gaffi stated, before switching to a screen of the transport routes. Vark's transport was going due-west, and was to head through a large series of canyons, starting an hour from their departure. A perfect place for an ambush. Maybe even where their cell was hiding.

"What should we do, sir? Alert the transport team of the potential for an insurgent attack?" Wilhem asked.

"No, the transport teams are not above suspicion. Telling them what we know could alert the insurgents and blow the lid on the operation. Instead, tell Vark's transport team that there's been an increase in Tusken sightings in the area, and to be cautious."

Wilhem nodded. "And what of Vark himself?"

"Have a tracking device implanted. If the transport comes under attack by the insurgents and they take Vark, we'll be led right to their base, and we'll take them out in one swift strike. Prepare assault teams."

Nodding once, Wilhem turned back to his desk. "And what of the traitor?" he asked.

"Open an investigation. I'd rather not let word of this get to Imperial Intelligence. Or the Security Bureau, Emperor forbid."

"Yes, sir." Wilhem said, before suddenly snapping back to Gaffi. "One more thing, sir…"

Gaffi looked at his subordinate, silently telling him to continue.

"Thel and Lexi have gone missing. Their stall is totally empty, and I've already ordered a search of Thel's home. Completely empty."

Gaffi brushed his hair back. "Put out a BOL for the two of them. The Empire protects those in its care, Wilhem. Letting harm come to them looks bad on not only us, but the Empire as a whole."

"Yessir."

* * *

Walking into the command center, Emel quickly noted Bataan talking to Blii, gesturing to a pair of datapads laid out on the table. "You called, sir?" Emel said, interrupting whatever conversation the two of them were having.

Bataan and Blii glanced over at him, with the former motioning him over to the table. "Something important's come up, Emel." Bataan said, pointing at a datapad laid on top of another. "One of our spies in Mos Eisley found something of great value to us."

Looking over at the datapad, Emel briefly scanned its contents. It was a manifest, with a list of names. Next to each one was something denoting their status, usually DETAINED, but a few were marked as OFFWORLD or EN-ROUTE. Some of those marked DETAINED had scheduled dates for transfer, all scheduled for several weeks from now.

Bataan brushed Emel's hand away, and pointed at a specific name, tapping it twice. Focusing on it, he mentally read out Vark Rurmiid, scheduled for transport _tomorrow_.

"This is on very short notice, but the Empire is transporting Vark tomorrow." Bataan said, tapping his name again for emphasis. "I don't need to tell you how important of an asset he is, Emel." he continued, before glancing at Blii. "…And how much of a morale boost we need." he finished, and Blii nodded in response.

Bataan then shifted the other datapad on top, and pointed to a red line that went from Mos Eisley, through the series of canyons their base was in, and out towards Bestine. "This is his transport. They're going to be coming right through our territory, practically handing him over to us." he explained, before pointing at a part of the route that was, at best, twenty minutes away from the base – uncomfortably close. "I want your squad here. Set up an ambush, get that transport stopped, bring Vark back. There should be ion mines in the armory to set up on the path."

Emel saluted. "Yes, sir." he responded.

Bataan gestured to Blii. "I'm also assigning Blii to Dewback, both to bring it up to strength, and because this is personal for her."

Blii saluted, and Emel looked back to Bataan. "Anything else?" he asked.

"No, dismissed."

* * *

As he worked on the transport, Nax wiped some sweat from his brow. He'd been out in the suns for a good few hours now, and the heat was beginning to get to him. Judging by the damage to the transport, he'd wager most of the electronics had been fried. He figured he could jury-rig the parts from the transport in the compound to this one, but that would be difficult without the proper tools, if not outright impossible.

The fact that he didn't have any idea of how the transports worked didn't help matters much.

Suddenly noticing that his throat was dry, Nax set whatever tools he had back into the toolbox and headed around the side of the transport, stepping in for cool air and water.

Kyra was peacefully sleeping on the table she had been laying on for the past two days, using a makeshift pillow to rest her head on. Her splint was much more structurally sound now – Nax had taken the straightest and stongest pieces of rebar and metal piping he could find, and tied them down with several belts.

Snatching his jug of water from a seat next to the door, Nax chugged. Water wasn't an issue – he cannibalized pieces from the vaporators surrounding the compound, and had a functioning vaporator just a few hours after the attack. His main concern was food. By his estimate, they had about a week's worth, mostly Imperial ration packs, and that was with conserving them.

Finished drinking, Nax set the jug down, and was about to head back outside, when he heard a distant rumbling, and the interior of the transport began to rattle. It was enough to wake Kyra up. "..Nngh.. what's that sound…?" she asked, sounding a bit annoyed that her rest had been interrupted.

Nax remained silent, and listened close. The rumbling was getting closer, more intense, almost to the point where he was afraid that it might shake Kyra's splint loose. Cracking the door open, Nax finally saw what it was.

"It's a sandcrawler." Nax said, before half-turning to Kyra. "I'm going to see if they have anything to help you."

Kyra nodded, and stared up at the ceiling, feeling that she wasn't going to get any rest soon.

Nax got over the sand dune that separated the sandcrawler from the compound right as it stopped. The front loading hatch of the behemoth machine slowly went down not long after, and multiple groups of Jawas poured out, curiously looking at Nax as he approached.

Mentally running over how to speak the Jawa trade language, one of the small sentients approached him, cautiously pointing its shock blaster at Nax. Clearing his throat, he looked down at the creature. "[Hello? What are your people doing here?]" he asked, hoping that came out right.

The Jawa's glowing eyes looked back up at him. "[Hello. Our tribe was supposed to trade with the residents of this outpost, but they appear to have been destroyed. Our chieftain has ordered a scavenging operation. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?]" he questioned.

Nax glanced back at the ruined compound. "[Empire bombed it. My friend and I are stranded here.]"

The Jawa leaned to the side to look past Nax. "[Very unfortunate. Where is your friend?]" he asked.

"[Inside one of the Imperial transports, the one you probably saw me coming out of. She's got a broken leg – I've already made her a splint, but I was hoping you had a bacta tank we could use.]"

The Jawa nodded. "[Yes, we do, but that would need to be cleared with our tribe chief first. Access is strictly forbidden to outsiders unless otherwise specified.]"

"[Can I have that arranged?]" Nax asked, and the Jawa signaled to another, who sprinted back into the sandcrawler.

"[Protocol dictates that you be brought in for questioning, so you can attempt to convince him to let your friend use the tank while you're there.]" the Jawa explained, before glancing over his shoulder at the returning Jawa, who was now pushing along a repulsorsled to carry Kyra on. "[Take us to your friend.]"

* * *

Nax walked up the ramp and into the sandcrawler, pushing the repulsorsled with Kyra on it, and the two Jawas were with them – the one that had gotten the sled was behind them, while the one he had been talking to was in front, who was apparently called Nbenk, one of the lower ranked Jawas. The group passed through the main loading bay of the crawler, getting odd looks from several of the Jawas working there. Looking over to his left, there was a large pile of droid parts. Mostly astromechs, but there were definitely a few humanoid ones in the pile, including at least one oddly skeletal droid.

Moving past a small set of speeder bikes – BARCs, if Nax remembered correctly. One of them had a sidecar, too. Nbenk led them to an elevator. "[Head on up, the chief is waiting for you.]" he said, pointing at it.

Looking down at Kyra, Nax debated asking if she could be brought up with him. Kyra, apparently having noticed his concern, briefly smiled at him. "Go on ahead, Nax. I'll be fine." she said reassuringly.

That settled things.

Handing the repulsorsled off to the other Jawa, Nax walked into the lift. To the right of the door was a panel with five buttons. The bottom one was glowing green, while the other four were slowly blinking red. Pressing the top one, the doors slammed shut, and the lift slowly started to move upwards.

There was a side window - well, more of a grate, really, that separated Nax from the elevator shaft. As the lift slowly went up, level by level, he got a glimpse into what kind of Jawa tribe this was. The ones he'd mostly dealt with with Trax and his dad had been Nebit's tribe, droid traders.

This tribe seemed to be more focused around selling vehicles than droids; a strange choice, since moisture farmers needed droids more often than vehicles. Then again, these Jawas could be catering more to traders than anyone else.

As he passed by the smelting level, Nax was blasted by the heat, and reflexively covered his face. Through the cracks between his fingers, Nax could see two Jawas tearing apart a V-35P Courier's turbine block, chucking it into the melting pool below. The sight was short lived, however, as the lift came to an abrupt halt at the command center, and Nax stepped out. The area was totally barren save for a few chairs modified for Jawa use up at the command console towards the front. The only other living being in the room was a Jawa, strapped down with bandoleers and a backpack, examining a datapad.

Nax cleared his throat and broke the silence. "[Hello?]" he asked, waiting for a response.

Without taking his eyes from the datapad, the Jawa waved him over. "[Are you the survivor I've just now been made aware of?]" he asked, rather rudely.

"[Ye-]" Nax started, before being cut off by the chief, who was now sniffing the air.

"[Wait.]" the chief suddenly said, continuing to sniff the air, before looking over at Nax, his eyes a dark gold, a sign of old age in Jawas. He sorted the datapad and sniffed closer to Nax. "[…You wouldn't happen to know a Cobro Strag, would you?]" he asked, a strange question for a Jawa chief.

"[He's my father.]" Nax replied, trying to remain as polite as possible.

The chief's previously rude demeanor instantly disappeared, and in the blink of an eye, the chief was furiously shaking Nax's hand. "[I knew it!]" he cheerfully said. "[You're Nax! Your father's done a lot of good for my tribe. I'm Thuptut, but you can just call me Krac Nozes, like your dad used to.]"

Nax raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. "[Crack Noses?]"

Krac waved his hands away in a friendly manner, and gave Nax what he assumed was a smile. "[It's a long story, and it involves more than a few upset Weequay. Anyways, how is your father doing? Does he know that you're out this far?]"

Nax frowned. "[He's dead, same with my brother. Dead in a bandit attack.]"

Krac appeared sad behind the shadow of his hood, or at least as sad as a Jawa could get without taking their hoods off. "[I… see.]" he replied, looking down at his feet, before looking up at Nax. "[You have my condolences. All of ours.]"

"[Appreciated.]"

Krac clapped his hands together. "[Now, to business. Why are you out here? Your homestead is hours away, if my memory serves.]"

Debating on how to answer the question, Nax figured out how to go forward. "[I joined up with a mercenary group. We got contracted out to protect this compound of moisture farmers.]" Nax explained.

Krac cocked his head to the side. "[A mercenary group? For what purpose?]"

"[Trying to get money together to buy a starship and leave this suns-forsaken planet. Plus, my friend Kyra down there is working with me on that, since she's hired me to get her off world.]" Nax said, and Krac nodded in understanding. "[Anyways, the Empire dropped by and started attacking, we beat them back. A day later, Alkharans come after the compound and get wiped out, we trail them, and come back to find the compound destroyed by the Empire. My buddies left me and Kyra behind, and she got a broken leg.]"

Krac slowly nodded. "[I see. I suppose you'll want to use our bacta tank, then.]"

"[That was one of the reasons I came up here in the first place, yes. I'll also need some form of transport to get back to our base. Those were BARC speeders I saw at the entrance ramp, right?]"

Krac nodded again. "[Yes, we've had them for years. Take 'em if you want em – too much of a pain to sell, and I'd rather have the space for something better.]"

Nax blinked twice. Jawas were notoriously stingy, and being basically handed two speeders for nothing was the last thing he expected today. "[Just like that?]"

Krac gave Nax something resembling a thumbs up. "[Just like that. Consider it repaying an old debt for your father.]"

Nax smiled at Krac. "[Thank you.]" he graciously said, appreciative of Krac's unusual kindness.

* * *

Emel was perched up at near top of the ridge with Tenan, their Flash parked nearby, hidden from view. Kelah was camped out behind a small rock formation with Blii further down, while Val was set up directly across from them in a sniping position. Hidden on the path that the transport was travelling were two ion mines, covered with rocks and debris. Either the transport would stop to check for the mines, or they'd trigger them. Either way, Vark would be freed today.

Assuming things went to plan, that was.

Re-ranging the scope on his EE-3, Emel switched it to single fire. Burst was a waste of ammo at this range.

Tenan switched out his usual Z-6 for a DLT-19D, as the Z-6 he preferred to use would've been too inaccurate and too cumbersome for this.

Pressing down on the side of his helmet, Emel spoke, albeit hesitantly. "Comm check." he said, receiving several responses confirming that everyone's comms worked. Pushing his body up and leaning to the side to look further up the trail, Emel pressed down on the commlink again. "Alright, the transport should be coming soon. Let's go over the plan one more time just to be safe. Either the transport stops to check the mines, or they go over them and trigger them. In either scenario, Val needs to shoot the driver out." Emel explained.

" _Copy. My rifle'll punch right through that vision port, no problem."_ Val responded over the comms.

"Once the driver's out, Tenan and I will shoot down any bucketheads stuck in the open. Once they're down, Blii and Kel need to rush in, shoot whoever's left, grab Vark, and bring him to us, then we all go home."

" _Sounds good."_ Blii responded.

"Good. Keep your comms quiet until we've got Vark." Emel ordered, shutting his commlink off.

Now, all they had to do was wait.

* * *

"Oh-Two, what's that in the road?" TK-3867 asked his companion. "That doesn't look right." he appended, leaning forward to try and get a better look.

"No clue, Six-Sev." TK-8702 responded as he pulled the transport to a halt. "Check it out; I've got a bad feeling about this." he ordered, warily tapping at the wheel.

"Yessir." Six-Sev curtly responded, before going back into the transport to get his men. A short while later, and Oh-Three, Three-One, Seven-Four, and Six-Sev were in front of the transport, checking out the debris.

The squad commlink clicked, and all Oh-Two heard was "It's a-" before there was a thunderous crack, and a slug penetrated the blasterproof window and hit him in the head, killing him instantly. His dead body simply watched as the four squadmates were unceremoniously cut down by blaster fire.

There was a blaster pistol shot at the door to the transport that blasted it open, and then the sounds of two pairs of footsteps on metal. "Clear!" two feminine voices said in unison.

"I've got Vark! Let's go!" the rougher and scratchier of the two said, before they grabbed their prisoner and fled the scene.

* * *

Gaffi observed the dot on his datapad representing Vark move through the canyons, completely opposite the direction he was supposed to go, and much faster at that, clearly not in the transport anymore.

Gaining a smug sense of satisfaction from the predictability of these insurgents, Gaffi watched as the dot came to a stop in a box canyon, and slowly started moving around at walking pace.

So that was their base.

Gaffi wordlessly transmitted the coordinates to the assault teams, as well as an order to attack.

It was time to end this little game.

Dewback brought Vark into the mess hall, still bound and gagged. Kelah effortlessly undid his stuncuffs, and Vark immediately tore off his gag. "You _**idiots**_!" he shouted, catching everyone by surprise.

Bataan walked into the mess hall right as Vark shouted. "Nice way to treat your rescuers, Vark." he snidely remarked, and Vark's head shot to him.

"Keldo, you've just kriffed us all!"

"How?"

Vark cleared his throat. "Empire drugged me and had me operated on. There's a pulsing in my left side, tracking device."

All of Dewback looked at Keldo, stupefied that he didn't consider this as a possibility. An eerie quiet fell over everyone. They'd been fighting the Empire for years, making sure to cover their tracks, yet nobody thought a rescue op would be the one thing to end them.

"Can we evacuate?" Emel asked, poking his head outside.

Keldo shook his head no. "Too much to move. We need to destroy what we can, deny them our assets. I'll send out a signal to the other teams telling them not to return."

"And then?"

Keldo was halfway in the doorway, and he half-turned. "We fight."

* * *

Just under an hour later, all of their intel had been destroyed, and defenses had been set up. Everyone had weapons, including technical personnel. Val was perched in a window at the back of the camp that had overwatch on the whole camp, as well as the area in front of the wall. Everyone who was in the camp at the time was set up in a defensive position at the wall. All of the speeders, including Nax's, had been destroyed. Even the AT-RT.

There would be no running this time. Everyone could fight against the idea as much as they wanted, but that didn't change the reality of the situation. They were all probably going to die; they knew that from the start. They just didn't imagine it being this way.

She stared out at the canyon, hoping Nax was okay. She briefly held her necklace out, letting the light of the suns shine against her gem.

A short while later, and the first signs of the Empire appeared.

Three Saber tanks, with Stormtroopers huddling behind them for cover. The tanks were moving at walking speed so that the infantry wouldn't be left without cover. _"Sabers! Light 'em up!"_ Emel ordered over the comms, and as soon as the words left his mouth, the firefight began.

A lightshow of blaster fire connected with the tanks, causing their shields to flare up in response. Val raised her rifle and looked down the scope, aiming into the driver side slit. Staring directly at his head through the scope, she lined the shot up, held her breath, and pulled the trigger. The rifle kicked into her arm, and the slug perforated the deflector shield, killing the driver and causing the tank to stop.

Her elation was short lived, however, as several seconds later, the tank started moving again. Looks like the co-pilot could commandeer the tank, then. Val was about to line up another shot, but Tenan beat her to it, launching a Plex missile into the front of the tank, blowing it up and sending a few Stormtroopers out of cover, who were immediately shot, while the rest either hid behind the wreck or joined up with the others.

Seemingly as a response to the Plex shot, the armor column stopped, and their side mounted blasters raised up, opening fire at the wall. A few friendlies got hit by stray shots, but none from Dewback went down. Val was about to line up another shot on another Saber tank driver, but something caught her attention. A glint of light, towards the back of the canyon. Aiming at the source, her scope showed exactly what it was.

A camouflaged Scout trooper, aiming right at her.

Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger, and the Scout trooper did the same.

Val was blasted in the chest and sent off her feet, not knowing whether her shot hit its mark or not.

Unaware of the existence of a sniper, Tenan reloaded the Plex, and prepared to fire at the second Saber tank. The Imperials were incredibly close now, practically breathing down their necks. By the second, it was becoming ever clearer that they weren't going to make it out of this. Standing up, Tenan yelled "Clear backblas-!" over the blaster fire, before suddenly being cut down by a green blaster bolt.

"TENAN!" Kelah screeched, before standing up and rapidly firing her Bryar pistol into the Stormtroopers, frenzied, and getting shot several times in the chest by the return fire, causing her to fall down to the ground.

Emel poked his head out from cover, and saw the column had stopped. A large tube extended from the side of the flaps where the repulsorlifts were, and aimed up. He realized far too late what was going on, and the wall was blasted apart by a volley of rocket fire from the surviving tanks, killing multiple people. Stormtroopers rushed in and executed everyone who moved, and then they began to destroy the compound.

* * *

Nax and Kyra were cruising at a comfortable speed through the canyon where the insurgent base was on their new BARC speeders. Kyra had been set in the bacta tank all night, and Nax was given a new shirt. Both of them were in high spirits, all things considered. Handling the BARC was unlike anything Nax had ever driven before – the sense of speed and controllability was insane compared to his landspeeder, even with the sidecar installed.

Nax signaled for them to turn the corner into the base, and they turned into the box canyon. Instead of the lively, functional base that had been there a few days earlier, they were greeted with a totally wrecked one. The wall had been blown apart – pieces of it were scattered around. Multiple buildings were blown into pieces, namely the mess hall and command center. There was a destroyed tank near the gate, and multiple bodies, insurgent and Stormtrooper alike, were strewn everywhere. Kyra and Nax pulled up to the gate and got off the BARCs, heading into the base.

The place was totally deserted. Not a single soul was here. The pair poked through the rubble of the wall, and under several pieces they found Emel, his armor and helmet cracked with a large blaster burn in its side. Dev and Keldo weren't too far from Emel.

Blii wasn't under anything, but she suffered from several shots to the chest and head, bearing the wounds to show it. "…Sheesh. Phaz won't like this." Nax remarked, feeling sorry for the poor guy. Hard to imagine thinking your wife was kidnapped because her brother was a terrorist, only to find out she became an insurgent and was killed.

Tenan wasn't particularly hard to find – he stuck out like a sore thumb. He didn't have many of the blast marks the others had, only a single, smaller mark on his face, the wound already cauterized.

Yet, try as they might, they couldn't find Kelah anywhere. Uncovering every last body, they were instead met with… Vark?

He was obviously dead, but it was strange to see him here. Did they mount a rescue op to get him back? Was this even the group that Vark was affiliated with? Whatever the case, they moved past the bodies, the two of them poked their head into the garage. In the mass of destroyed vehicles, Nax could faintly see the tail end of his speeder poking out.

At least they had BARCs, now.

Proceeding further back into the base, Nax didn't bother to check any of the destroyed buildings. Instead, he opted to head to the second level of the base, into one of the built-in homes in the walls, one that had blaster marks near the windows. Nax cautiously drew his scattergun, while Kyra drew her CR-2, and they crept inside. Towards the opposite end of the room, there was a faint cyan glow close to the floor.

As their eyes adjusted to the darkness, Val finally became visible. Dropping all pretenses of caution, Nax dashed over to her side. She had a large blaster mark on her chest, and both hands over it, damp with blood and rifle at her side.

Slowly, Val's eyes opened, and her gaze landed on Nax. "…You're okay…" she weakly said with a smile, before hacking up some blood. Nax moved to help her, but she stopped him. "…Don't. I'm not long for this galaxy, Nax…"

"Don't say that." Nax replied with an uncharacteristic amount of concern for someone who he had been hating on just days prior.

Val slowly shook her head. "…Nax, I can't even see color anymore. The Empire blew up our bacta tank and droids. I'm done for." she said sadly, seeming accepting of her fate.

Kyra looked down at Val sympathetically. The wound looked pretty bad, and she'd probably bleed out before they could get her any treatment. "Is there anything we can do for you?" Kyra offered.

Val turned to Kyra and smiled, shaking her head again. "…No. Although…" she said, before leaning forward and taking her necklace off, holding it out. "I want you to have this, Kyra." she offered, dangling the gem for her to take.

Reaching out to take the necklace, Kyra stopped herself. "…Why?" she asked.

Val held the necklace further out. "Because it meant a lot to me, and I know it meant a lot to Nax, too… whether he wants to admit it or not." she said, and Kyra held out her hand. Val gently set the necklace into Kyra's hand, and clamped down on it. "Thank you. Take care of it, please…" she said, before letting go.

The three of them remained silent, with Val's labored breathing slowly growing more intense. She turned to Nax, eyes slowly growing more dead. "…Nax… before I go, I have something to tell you." she said, sounding more pained now. Nax gave her a look that meant nothing to Kyra, but for Val, meant for her to continue. "…I'm sorry. For everything. I know you don't trust me, and you have every reason not to, but… I hope you can find it in you to forgive me for cheating." she said, hopeful Nax would answer her.

Nax swallowed and closed his eyes, before opening them, making eye contact with Val. "…I do." he replied, suddenly feeling significantly better after having said that.

Val stroked Nax's cheek. "…Thank you." was the last thing she said, before slumping over, dead.

Nax said nothing, opting instead to cradle Val's body.

After a while, Nax went to bury Val out of respect.

* * *

The ride home was extremely uneventful. No Tusken raiding parties. No wandering Imperial patrols to question what they were doing so close to an operation. Just Kyra and Nax silently driving home on their BARCs. It was getting pretty late – the suns were setting now, and they'd just felt exhausted. The two of them made the decision to head into Mos Eisley tomorrow to tell Phaz the bad news and get paid.

Maybe they'd take on another job from someone paying money. Hell, maybe relocate to Mos Espa and do jobs there. It'd make the final stretch of getting the fighter go by a lot faster.

That would need to be reserved for tomorrow.

Pulling up to the front door of the homestead, the door automatically opened for Nax, and the two of them headed inside, parking the BARCs where the speeder used to go.

The door shut behind them, and then the lights kicked on, revealing that they were surrounded by multiple people, alien and human alike. Before they could say anything, the two of them were stunned and cuffed.

"I 'ant believe it was 'at easy." Kaz remarked, staring at the Nax and Kyra. She suddenly snapped to Dav. "Call yer ship. Set her down in Mos Eisley, we're leaving." she ordered.

Dav pulled out his beckon-call and activated it, heading out to ready their speeders.

* * *

Jace observed the _Cranky Bantha_ as the YT-2400 detached from it. He turned to his comm officer and spoke. "Open a line to the Mos Eisley garrison." he ordered, and the pair of them headed further back to the communications console.

A hologram of Gaffi appeared in the center of the console. _"Yes, what is it?"_ Gaffi questioned, sounding tired.

"The YT-2400 attached to the _Cranky Bantha_ has just disconnected itself, and it's heading for Mos Eisley."

Gaffi's eyes widened. _"Do you have anything else to report?"_

"Nobody was on-board, sir."

Gaffi nodded. _"Thank you. I'll contact you with any developments on our end."_ he said, and the hologram disappeared.

* * *

The small convoy of speeders rushed through the abandoned streets of Mos Eisley at a brisk pace – fast enough that chasing them would be hard, but the engines were quiet enough so as to not arouse suspicion of what a convoy was doing running around Mos Eisley at night.

The convoy came around a corner near Kerner Plaza – from here it was a straight shot to where Dav's ship was waiting.

Or it would have been, if they weren't flagged down by a stormtrooper patrol. Choosing to try and feed them bantha dung, Kaz pulled the convoy over and rolled the window down as the Stormtroopers approached. "Evening, ma'am. Do you know why we pulled you over?"

Kaz half-shrugged with her hand. "Speeding?" she asked, knowing full well what the answer was already.

The trooper nodded. "Yes, how fast were you going, and why?"

"I 'unno, 'undred kilos, 'undred twenty? 'e're a mercenary group, just completed our contract and were heading home to party." Kaz lied through her teeth, and the stormtrooper seemed to buy it.

"Ah, I see. I can relate." he replied, before leaning further down and looking into the speeder. "What's under that tarp?" he asked, pointing to a black, vaguely humanoid tarp in the back of the speeder.

"'s our pay."

The trooper nodded again. "I see, I see. Where's your ship landed?"

Now Kaz was beginning to get suspicious. "Docking bay twenty-two." she answered truthfully. If she gave a random docking bay and it was empty, odds are that she'd get called out on it.

"You don't mind if I call that in, right?" the trooper asked, and Kaz gave him a shrug of approval. The trooper pressed down on his commlink. "Control, confirm that docking bay twenty-two is occupied." he said. There was a brief wait, and then the trooper gestured for them to move along. "Have a good night!" he called out as they drove away.

As soon as they were out of hearing range, the trooper pressed down on the commlink again. "Gaffi, I think I found Thel. Stopped a convoy of Couriers, front speeder had a tarp in the back seat, looked like… four bodies in there? They're headed to docking bay twenty-two _right now_."

" _Already aware of the situation, Jigsaw. You're dismissed for the night."_ Gaffi said through the comm.

* * *

"C'mon, 'eople! Let's move it! Get these 'uckers loaded up!" Kaz shouted at her underlings as they loaded the slaves and their bodyguards onto Dav's ship. Trec was carrying the Zeltron over his shoulder, and as he headed up the ramp, tried to make a pass at Kaz, who just socked him in the face. After that was the white haired girl that Lostur had been obsessing over, her bodyguard, and the gunsmith, with the last two things to be loaded up being the two droids. The traitor unit would be melted down, maybe memory wiped and sold off, but the one with the pan head was up to Lostur. As the droids finished loading, all Kaz could think about was finally getting paid for this frustrating, annoying job. The girl'd better be worth the credits.

As she was about to turn up to the loading ramp, a mass of stormtroopers burst through the docking bay doors. "Hands up! You're under arrest!" one of them shouted.

Kaz, without as much as flinching, drew her blaster pistol, and shot three of the troopers in the helmet. They immediately returned fire, causing her to scramble up the loading bay and hit the button to shut it. One of the Duros was too slow in getting up the ramp, and was shot dead, leaving his friend at the mercy of the Imperials. As soon as the ramp was shut, Kaz ran to the front cockpit. "Dav! 'et us the 'ell outta 'ere!" she shouted, and Dav, on command, flicked a few switches, and the freighter took off, tilting upwards, and flew out of the docking bay, leaving the stormtroopers behind.

Time to get paid.

* * *

Gaffi held his head in his hands as the report came in from the capture teams. Only one of the pirates was captured, and from the brief interrogation they had, he was a low level mook, not even anyone important. Frustrated, he called up the _Sandtrap_ , and Jace's hologram came up on the center table.

"Jace, my teams failed to bring the people boarding their freighter down. They got away."

Jace frowned and nodded. _"I understand, Gaffi. I'll take it from here."_

Gaffi frowned, too. "Let's hope that you do. Remember our plans., Jace. Imperial citizens everywhere are counting on you for this."

" _Yes, sir. Sandtrap out."_

With that, Jace's hologram disappeared into nothingness, and Gaffi sat back, staring up at the ceiling.

"May the Force be with you, Nax." he muttered under his breath.

* * *

 **That's this chapter, holy fuck. I started writing at like 11 AM and didn't finish until nearly 8 PM, I had about 3.4k words done at the start, and now I'm sitting at nearly 8k. Guess that's what happens when I set a strict goal for myself to release on time.**

 **In case anyone is mad about Dev's reaction to Val's friendly fire, how the hell would you react if you found out a teammate you trusted killed your brother?**

' **Till next time when we finally get to have Nax and Lostur meet!**

 **-Tweak**


	9. To Galaxy

**To Generic Name: Not commenting on the whole Empire turning on Nax thing as that can easily wander into spoiler territory, but that would be out of character as FUCK for both Gaffi and Jace. As for the rest of what you said; the Empire are the pseudo good-guys because they're the law and order on Tatooine, and not every Imperial is a Tarkin or a Vader. The Empire and Rebellion aren't going to be central focuses of this fic, either, or at least initially. I'm aiming more for something like what Ragtag (the cancelled Star Wars game made by Visceral) was going to be. And trust me, if the Empire does turn on them or vice versa, it's going to be for very personal reasons, not just them going "oh, Alderaan's gone, time to become terrorists lol"**

 **Read and review.**

* * *

A couple of the guys from the other teams carried the slaves off back towards the cargo hold, near the reactor room. Dav had to admit, it was finally nice to be back on the _Bantha_ after all this time. The contract with Lostur could be finished up, and he'd be a free man again, working odd jobs with the only friend of his that got away, Rayf.

As he was about to go searching for Rayf, Lostur came into the room, visibly angry. "You slagbrains better have a damn good reason for coming here without my slave!" he said to everyone in the room, but mainly to Kaz.

"Shutchyer 'ole, Boss." Kaz replied with such disrespect that she'd probably be shot on the spot by anyone else. "We 'ot em. Trec and 'is team are throwing 'em with the others." she finished, pointing towards the end of the hall. "Got the Zeltron, too, plus their guardian angels."

Lostur's anger quickly subsided, and he gave a crooked, satisfied smile. "Nice work, Kaz. _Very_ nice work." he complimented, half backhanded from how long this took, and half genuine. "Are they still stunned?" he asked, obviously having something in mind.

Kaz shrugged. "'ell if I know, Boss. Probably will be for the next twenty minutes or so. Why?"

Lostur sadistically smiled to himself, putting Dav on edge, but everyone else totally ignored it. "Whenever this Nax character wakes up, let me know. I want to have a… little chat with him." he said in an eerie, borderline psychopathic tone.

Kaz nodded her head upwards once. "Sure, Boss." she said, and everyone began to filter out of the room, seemingly done with the conversation at hand.

Dav, however, began to poke around the ship, looking for Rayf.

* * *

Leaning over a bridge crewman's console, Jace looked at the readouts of the _Cranky Bantha_ one last time. Heavy weapons, illegal modifications, and presumably, an experienced crew. This wasn't going to be an easy fight. The YT-2400 had re-docked not long after Gaffi reported his men failed, and this time it had around twenty people on board.

Standing up from the console, Jace stepped over to the _Sandtrap_ 's intercom system and pulled the transmitter out. His finger hesitantly hovering over the button to begin transmitting. Mentally calming himself, Jace swallowed, and pressed down on the button. "Attention all hands," he said in a cold, professional tone. "We are moving to Combat Alert Alpha. Decks five through nine, get to your stations and prepare to engage the enemy. All pilots, get to your ships! I want boarding teams fully loaded in ten!" he said, growing more forceful to emphasize his orders, before setting the transmitter back in its place, and turning to the bridge crew. "Interdiction and tractor beam crews! Prepare to focus on that blockade runner!" he yelled as he walked towards the front of the bridge, staring out the bridge window at the _Cranky Bantha_ , before transmitting those same orders to the escort fleet.

They had one shot at this. Best to make it count.

* * *

Dav poked his head into the crew quarters. "Rayf! You in here?" he shouted, looking around. The only other person in the room was… Bolthead, apparently, who had his back to Dav.

Half-turning, Bolthead looked at him, confused. "Huh?" he asked.

"Rayf. You seen him?" Dav questioned, fully entering the room and sitting next to Bolthead, who was idly swirling a drink.

Bolthead's eyes darted around the room in thought. "Whasshelooklike?" he slurred, obviously drunk, before leaning back in his chair and nearly spilling his drink.

"Scraggly, dirty blonde, kinda looks like a bantha ran over his face? Ring any bells?" Dav continued to press, impatiently tapping the table.

Bolthead leaned further back, making random drunken noises while he thought. "I...thinahknoem…" he slurred again, before yawning, actually spilling his drink onto the floor this time.

Now they were getting somewhere. "Yeah, that's him. You seen him?" Dav asked as he stood up to see how bad the spill was, before sitting down again.

"…Nah, Lostur mighknowwhere he is. Wansum help, though?" Bolthead offered, drunkenly offering his hand out.

"Couldn't hurt." Dav said as he stood up, and Bolthead stumbled up with him. The pair of them walked out the crew quarters opposite the door Dav came in from, and began to walk towards the bridge.

"So's, why youtryinafind this guy?" Bolthead prodded, not flinching for asking something out of turn.

Dav brushed his hand against the door to the armory as they walked by it, and put his hand on Bolthead's shoulder to try and keep him stable. "Rayf's a friend of mine, we go way back to conning slagged-up politicians on Corellia. When we got betrayed by that Alderaanian noble, he was the only one who got away." Dav explained as the two of them brushed past some random mercs Lostur had hired on around the same time as Dav.

"Butwhy'syoulookinfohim?" Bolthead slurred again, obviously not satisfied with his answer.

Giving him a half annoyed look as they walked past what was supposed to be a meeting room and up a ramp, Dav sighed. "'Cause my contract's gonna end soon here, and I wanted to talk with him about what we should do after it does. Maybe go smuggle for Jabba or something, I don't know." Dav shrugged.

As the two approached the end of the ramp that led to the bridge, they bumped into Kaz. "'Ello, Dav." she said in a markedly neutral tone. "'Ello, dungstain." she said to Bolthead with significant distain, before passing by the two, making sure to punch Bolthead in the shoulder as hard as she reasonably could, and then finally walking off.

Dav looked at what just transpired in disbelief. "Man, why do you put up with this?" he asked seriously. In the short time Dav had been with Lostur's crew, he'd seen Bolthead constantly on the receiving end of totally random and unjustified abuse, mostly from Kaz. It was shocking, actually, even for a slaver crew.

Bolthead shrugged. "Iunno, man. Guess I'm sofragginusetoit that it doesn't even bother me anymore." he replied, sounding slightly less slurred now.

"But why?"

Bolthead looked at him with an 'I-don't-know' expression, so Dav chose to stop pushing the matter, and the two of them finally headed onto the bridge. To their left was Lostur, talking with one of the bridge crew, with that Twi'lek still at his side. Out of the corner of his eye, Lostur noticed the pair, so he dismissed the crewman and waved the two of them over. "Hello boys, we'll be leaving pretty soon here. Didya need something?" Lostur asked, sounding pretty upbeat now that he had his slaves back.

Dav scratched the back of his head. "Yeah – have you seen Rayf?" he asked, and both Lostur and the Twi'lek gave him a look of confusion.

"...Who's Rayf?" Lostur queried, not sure who Dav was referring to.

"My crewmate that managed to come back up here after we got doublecrossed by that noble."

Lostur blinked twice, and then his mouth opened. "Oh. OH. Him. The blonde kid, right?"

"Right. Where is he?"

Lostur pointed out the viewport. "Dead. Shot him myself. Had him spaced not long after." he said nonchalantly.

Dav's jaw _**dropped**_. "What the hell?!" he shouted. "Why?!"

Grabbing one of the Twi'lek's lekku, Lostur began to toy with it. "Stipulations of your contract. Did you forget that 'failure to comply with orders' would result in severe consequences, Dav?" Lostur asked coldly, continuing to toy with the slave.

"No, but-"

"Then you have no room to complain. You were all made aware of this, and Rayf paid the price for failing to follow orders." he said, before yanking the lekku. "Now get gone. I have work to do." he finished, turning back to a new crewman.

Dav and Bolthead turned back and returned to the crew quarters without incident.

"…Ahmsorryman." Bolthead drunkenly consoled to a crestfallen Dav, who just buried his face into his hands.

What a mess.

* * *

The first thing Kyra noticed was the smell. It was bitter, rank with death and blood. The floor was cold and metallic, too hard and smooth to be sandstone like in Nax's house. Her mind was still clouded by the effects of being stunned, and then her eyes shot open.

She was back on the _Cranky Bantha_ , in one of the cells, again a slave. Her worst fears made manifest.

" _This is a nightmare. It has to be."_ Kyra thought to herself, quickly devolving into silent hysterics. She tried to reach for the blaster pistol still tucked away in her duster, but found her arms bound by stuncuffs. There were three humanoid shadows in the cell with her – Thel, Lexi, and Nax, all of them bound and still knocked out. To the cell on her right were two starved Wookies, looking at her sympathetically, before they turned away.

Distraught and with tears beginning to flow down her face, Kyra shook Nax. "…Nax, wake up… please…" she said through the tears. "Please… tell me this is just a nightmare…" she said, hoping she could wake up.

Stirring, Nax rolled over, eyes half opened, with what seemed to be a faint glitter in his eyes. "…Huh?" Nax groggily replied, before sitting up fully and rubbing his head.

Kyra grabbed Nax's shoulder with what little room the four of them had in this cramped cell. "Lostur's got us. We're on the _Cranky Bantha_ right now." she whispered, not wishing to incur their wrath, real or not. Kyra then held on to Nax's arm, scared for what was going to happen next. "This is a nightmare. It has to be." she whispered, sulking into Nax's arm.

Nax looked at her, deadpan, before what she said finally registered. "Sithspit." was all he said, before pulling himself away from Kyra and over to Thel and Lexi. "Up. Both of you. Now." he ordered quietly, shaking both of them awake.

The pair of them groggily and begrudgingly woke up, before turning to Nax, looking at him in confusion. Thel was a blank slate for the most part, but it was Lexi who had the reaction. She immediately started quietly panicking, backing herself into a corner of the cage and curling her body up, burying her face into her knees.

"We need to get out of here." Nax proposed, before his head darted around the cell. "We need to find something to-" he continued, before being interrupted by the door to the cargo hold.

"-Escape?" a sadistic, gravelly voice said behind them. All four of them turned to face the door, and on the stairs that led to the rest of the ship were three dimly lit figures. There was a brief pause of silence, and then the lights fully kicked on, blinding everyone in the hold, causing a ruckus among the other slaves. "Shut up!" the gravelly voice ordered, and just as soon as it started, the racket ended.

As their eyes finally adjusted to the blinding brightness and they moved their hands away from their faces, they found they were all face to face with Allo Lostur, who was looking down at them, smug and condescending. "How _lovely_ it is that you've finally decided to come back to us, _**whore**_." he said, referring to Kyra, who was hiding behind Nax, and then he glanced at Lexi. "I'm less thrilled about you, however." he said, moderately annoyed.

Lostur then turned to Nax and Thel. "I'm going to take a guess and say that you," he pointed to Nax. "…are Nax Strag." he said, not really caring whether he was right or not.

Nax snorted indignantly. "Yeah, and I'm pretty sure you're Allo Lostur, slaver captain with a death sentence in forty star systems." he replied, and Lostur seemed very pleased with himself.

"It's forty, now, is it?" Lostur said casually, as if he were making a checklist of systems he had upset for some kind of galactic record. "Regardless, I'm glad to see that my reputation precedes me."

"About as much as the dung on my boots." Nax replied, staring down what may as well have been the face of death.

Lostur simply rolled his eyes. "I see you've got your father's fearlessness. Let's see how that holds up." he subtly threatened, before getting eye level with Nax. "Tell me – do you know what your father did to me and my crew? Why I'm even bothering to give you the time of day?"

Nax gave Lostur a cocky smile. "I remember him telling me a story about he ran some slimeball coward slavers off a frontier world. That wouldn't happen to have been you weaklings, would it?" he taunted, unafraid and unaware of the consequences.

Kyra leaned in close to his ear. "Nax, I don't think…" was all she could whisper, before he shushed her.

Lostur seemed frustrated now. "Close, but worded very poorly." was what he said, before he drew an S-5 from its holster and shot Thel clean in the head, causing him to slump over, dead. "Try being more docile." Lostur maliciously suggested.

"Thel!" Nax suddenly shouted, before turning to Lostur. "You son of a bitch! You'll pay for that!" he yelled, angry at the sudden loss of his friend.

Casually shrugging, Lostur looked bemused. "Will I?" he poised. "I've heard hundreds say the same, yet here I am, still alive." he said, before laughing at Nax's misfortune. "If you had simply kept your mouth shut, your friend would still be alive and well."

The Weequay woman to his side snickered. "For now, anyways." she sneered, getting a brief laugh from Lostur.

Casually waving his S-5 around, Lostur got serious again. "Now, let me explain to you why you're still alive, Strag." he said, his words laced with malice, before leaning down to stare Nax down. "Your father cost me quite a few credits." he said, rubbing his fingers together for emphasis. Nax chose to remain silent. "Kaz – remind me, how much did Cobro cost us, again?"

The woman, Kaz, apparently. rolled her head around. "Wasn't it 'ree million credits, Boss?" she asked, not sure of her answer.

Lostur gave her a pat on the shoulder. "That's right, Kaz. Three million credits, gone because Cobro kriffed us over." he said with hints of old anger in his voice, before turning to Kyra. "And we're going to make all of that back off of you." he finished, satisfied with whatever plan he had in mind for her.

Kyra meekly hid behind Nax, afraid of Lostur.

His gaze falling on Nax again, Lostur sneered. "So, tell me, Strag. Where's your old man?"

"Dead." Nax replied, cold and emotionless, and whatever Lostur had in mind for Cobro vanished immediately.

"Oh." Lostur said flatly, before looking at his crew, confused and not sure of what to do. Quickly correcting his lapse in appearance, Lostur levelled the S-5 at Nax. "In that case, I'll use you as a surrogate. So long, Strag – I'll see you and your kin judged by Vantu." Lostur said, firing a shot.

That same shot broke Kyra out of her ramshackle belief that this was a nightmare.

As she watched Nax slump back, she snapped back to reality. "NAX!" she screeched, quickly crawling over to his fallen body and cradling it. Blood was pouring from the wound in his chest, and Kyra immediately started to apply pressure to it, her one hand becoming incredibly bloody, while the other was just barely supporting his back.

The life fading from his eyes, Nax reached out to touch Kyra's face. Hands trembling while still cuffed together, Nax's hands reached just short of her face, before he passed out. Tears flowing from her eyes, Kyra tried to shake him awake. "Nax!" she shouted. "No, no, no! Wake up! Please!" she weeped, rocking his body back and forth to try and force him to wake up.

No such luck.

Kyra was still reeling with the knowledge that this wasn't some horrible nightmare – that this was real, and that Nax had just been shot. Thel was already dead, and here Nax was, bleeding out in front of her, and not a damn thing she could do to save him.

Everything they had worked towards had just gone up in smoke. Nax was dying, and here she was, a slave again. Nothing actually mattered. It was just Lostur toying with them. She was always going to end up a slave, no matter what.

"And THAT is why you don't run from me, whore." Lostur said, establishing his dominance over the situation, before signaling for his crew to leave with him, leaving Kyra to cry over her dying friend.

Time seemed to pass very slowly as Kyra mourned Nax, quietly weeping over his dying body. There was never any chance of her escaping in the first place – she would've been back here one way or another.

"Hey." she heard a voice say, and Kyra looked up. In the place Lostur had been standing, there were now two men she hadn't heard or seen enter the hold. One was vaguely familiar to her, but she couldn't place exactly where she had seen him before. The other was the smuggler captain, the one Lorn had double crossed. The captain was carrying a syringe of transparent blue liquid, clearly showing it to Kyra. "You gonna let us help your friend, or would you rather he'd die?" the captain impatiently asked.

Kyra sneered at the both of them. "You're working for Lostur. Why the hell should I trust you?" she asked angrily, holding herself close to Nax.

The captain glanced at his friend, and then back to Kyra. "Let's just say that my friend and I have some… personal grievances against the crew. We figured this was the best way to get back at them. I've got my emergency injector prepped for your friend here – you can either take it, save your friend, and get revenge on Lostur, or you can tell me to leave, have your friend die, and you get to stay a slave." he said, before shrugging. "Your choice, really."

Kyra opened her mouth to reject him, about to tell him how worthless she was in a fight, and then closed it as Nax's words echoed through her mind.

" _I'm having none of that defeatist garbage, especially not from my bounty hunting partner."_

Finally realizing what she had to do, Kyra pushed Nax's body to the edge of the cell, towards the captain, who then bent over and pushed the syringe into Nax's arm, before retracting it and tossing it aside. "Right, your friend's gonna be stable for now. Let's get you free. Bolthead?" the captain asked his friend. Complying with whatever silent order he had been given, "Bolthead" approached the door and sliced the lock with a fusion cutter he had been hiding, and the door opened out. Bolthead then cut the cuffs on both Kyra and Lexi, sending them clattering to the floor. As soon as they were free, Kyra grabbed her A280 from her duster and tossed it to Lexi, before taking the A280 from Nax's duster and charging it.

The captain and "Bolthead" continued to open the slave cells, negotiating with each of the slaves inside to _not_ kill them as soon as they were free. After several minutes, all of them were free of their restraints, and they had a group of angry slaves that rivalled whatever remained of Lostur's crew. Kyra jumped up on a stack of crates to get everyone's attention. "Listen up!" she yelled. "We're taking this ship over! That rat bastard Lostur's hurt each and every one of us, so I say it's time for a little payback!" Kyra spoke, as if a hidden fire in her had been suddenly stoked. "You!" she glanced at the smuggler captain. "Is there an armory on this ship we can use?"

The captain nodded. "Yeah, but it's towards the front, near the bridge. We're gonna be unarmed getting there."

Blast.

Kyra pointed to Lexi, "Bolthead", and the captain. "We're the four people with blasters, so we're taking point." she ordered, showing a previously unseen and unknown side to her with how she gave orders. "Wookies, I hate asking you this, but you need to fall in behind us and shield everyone else."

The Wookies looked around at the crowd of slaves, and then roared in agreement.

"Then it's settled. Move out!" Kyra ordered, but before anyone could take a step, they heard the hyperdrive spool up and the intercom crackle.

" _This is your captain speaking, we're jumping to hyperspace in ten."_

As the pitch and whine of the hyperdrive grew higher, Lostur's voice came in again. _"Five."_

" _Four."_

" _Three."_

The whine was nearing its peak. _"Two."_

And then suddenly, the hyperdrive shut down, and a new voice broke through the comm system. _"This is Captain Jace Weyland of the Imperial Interdictor Sandtrap to the crew of the Cranky Bantha. You are all under arrest for crimes against the Empire. Surrender your ship immediately, or face lethal force."_ he ordered calmly and efficiently.

" _Screw you!"_ Lostur defiantly yelled back, and the comm system shut off.

They would need to be fast about this.

* * *

As Viper Squadron launched from the ventral hangar bay of the _Sandtrap_ , Cutter pressed down on the squadron commlink. "Bile, Cooler, Bizarro and Coffin! Form up on me!" he ordered, and four different variations on _"copy that"_ came through the commlink. "Our job is to soften up that CR70 for the bombers, then our guys can board!" Cutter directed.

" _That's a CR70?"_ Cooler's comm cracked as they passed out from the tip of the _Sandtrap_.

" _It's got a C20 pack and a bunch of other illegal mods, but that's a CR70 alright. Big deal."_ Coffin replied casually as the squadron formed up with the Arquitens TIE group.

" _Thirty kilos out, minute thirty to engagement."_ Bile reported, and multiple TIE squadrons – not just Viper, acknowledged. The remainder of the flight to the corvette was occupied by thirty seconds of relative silence from all comms, with only the hum of the twin ion engines drowning out the deafening quiet. When that half-minute was up, however, the corvette immediately opened fire.

"Scatter! Break formation and engage!" Cutter shouted over the commlink, and the formation they had all been flying in disappeared, and was replaced with a swarm of TIE fighters moving erratically towards the corvette.

Finally, the swarm was on top of the corvette, circling around it like a nest of angry hornets, green laser fire flying everywhere. _"Those are quad laser cannons! Stay in their blindspots or get vaped!"_ Bile yelled, the sound of his TIE firing echoing through the comm.

Swooping under the corvette, Cutter brought his TIE practically to a crawl, and started firing his weapons into the engines, the deflector shields catching each and every shot. As the corvette pressed forward towards the _Sandtrap_ 's fleet, Cutter took notice of a missile pod on the ventral part of the ship. Pivoting his TIE around, Cutter proceeded to open fire on that specific part. The deflectors kept blocking the shots, but he kept the trigger held regardless.

Soon, the bright spurts from the deflector shield faded away, and Cutter's shots started getting through, before finally destroying the part. "The shields are weak! Bombers, your turn!" Cutter said, alerting the fighters to the corvette's situation.

" _Copy that, Cutter. Butcher moving in to take out defenses."_

With that, Cutter pushed the throttle down and swooped up to rejoin the swarm. Towards the edge of his viewport, he could see four TIE bombers moving in, two on each side. The ship's point defense systems were too busy focusing on the swarm of fighters to notice them, and paid the price dearly.

" _Rounds out."_ Butcher's comm cracked, and as soon as the words left his mouth, a small cluster of proton torpedoes was fired along both the port and starboard of the corvette, knocking out all of the quad laser cannons in one bombing run. _"Splash."_ he said, reporting the targets had successfully been hit.

On cue, four turbolaser shots were fired from the _Sandtrap_ , three of them perfectly hitting their marks on the quad turbolasers, while the fourth directly hit the hyperdrive, making escape impossible, even without the interdiction fields currently in place.

As the guns fell silent, the TIE bombers circled around towards the engines, preparing to fire their payloads again. _"Rounds out."_ Cyclops reported, and another cluster of torpedoes hit their mark on the engines, completely disabling it. _"Splash."_ Cyclops reported again, before breaking off.

" _Attention TIE wings, maintain position near the Cranky Bantha while the Arquitens and boarding teams move to position. Hold fire unless directed otherwise."_ Captain Weyland suddenly said over their comms.

Soon enough, the Arquitens were within range, escorting the boarding TIEs. The ship was dead in the water, now. All that had to be done was take it.

* * *

Getting to the armory was a total non-issue – most of the crew seemed to be on the bridge or in different rooms, nowhere near the armory. That didn't mean they weren't _in_ the armory itself. Stacking up against the door, Kyra counted down from three, and then the four of them breached. As soon as they entered the armory, however, there was another explosion, this time further back in the ship.

" _Engines are out. All hands not on the bridge, get to the armory and gear up for boarding action."_ Lostur said over the comm system. All of the slaves poured into the armory as soon as the announcement went out, and began taking weapons from the racks. Wookies grabbed their old bowcasters and cradled them like one would their own child, before roaring in defiance and setting up in cover near the entrance on the other side of the room. A couple of the Twi'lek and human slaves grabbed A280s, DH-17s, and E-11s hanging on the walls. Lexi grabbed a strange looking blaster pistol and charged it, before setting up near the door they had entered the armory from.

Pretty soon, the entire armory had been picked clean, barring Kyra's DL-44 and CR-2, and Nax's Deecee and scattergun. She grabbed the former two, charged them both, and then threw the latter two over her back by their slings. Kyra then turned back to the entrance, about to leave, but someone grabbed her and stopped her from walking out. "Where are you going?" Lexi asked her, concerned for Kyra's well being.

"To take care of Lostur." Kyra replied coldly.

The slightest hint of a frown crossed Lexi's face, and she let go of Kyra. "Take care of yourself, Kyra." she wished her friend.

Giving her a brief smile, Kyra nodded and walked out, weapons at the ready. Trying not to make any noises, she passed by a T-junction, stopping, listening for footsteps, and then proceeding. She kept one hand on her DL-44, and the other on the wall. At the end of the long corridor was a ramp of sorts that definitely led to the bridge. She just had to get there unscathed.

Suddenly hearing footsteps further ahead, Kyra ducked into what looked like a conference room, and hid under a table. About five guys ran down the corridor she was just in, and when their footsteps were far enough away, Kyra got out from under the table and kept the pace up, finally getting to the ramp, the sounds of a firefight erupting behind her between the slaves and the crew.

Steeling herself, Kyra calmed herself to get her heart to stop beating so fast. Throwing her CR-2 over her back by its sling, she readied her DL-44 and raised it, slowly stepping out onto the bridge. At the far end of the bridge was the viewport, and she could faintly make out a swarm of TIE fighters and several slightly larger ships, and at the bridge consoles were crewmen dressed in clothing that was in various states of disarray and mismatching. Slowly walking around the bridge, she pointed the blaster at an elevated platform to her left, right where Lostur was sitting.

"Hands up." Kyra ordered, and Lostur suddenly noticed her.

A sly grin befell his face, and he slowly raised his hands in surrender, before getting up. "Congratulations. You got me." he said in a mocking tone, walking towards Kyra slowly. She refused to flinch, and kept the blaster trained on him. "What are you going to do with me, I wonder?" he mused.

"Turn you in to the Empire, coward." she replied coldly.

Lostur faked shock. "Oh, no! The Empire?!" he exaggerated. "I can assure you, I can pay you three times whatever the bounty on my head is." Lostur advised.

Kyra refused to back down as he got closer. "No." she said firmly.

Lostur shrugged with his shoulders. "Well, I tried." he said without a care in the world, before tackling Kyra to the ground, pulling a knife on her. She barely managed to grab hold of his right arm to prevent herself from getting stabbed, and it took all of her strength to even hold him in place. Visibly straining, Lostur smirked at her. "This is the price for defying me, you whore!" Lostur angrily said to her, before putting more pressure on her. "I'm gonna carve your face up, and then instead of selling you like I planned, I'll turn you into the crew's rape-meat!" he ranted, the knife getting ever closer to her face. "I'll make you sleep with your useless piece of shit friend's body, too! A reminder of why you'll be that way!" Lostur threatened her. The knife now inches away from her face in this losing battle of attrition, Kyra had to think, and act, fast.

Quickly moving her head to the side, Kyra let go of Lostur's arm, and the knife stabbed harmlessly between her neck and her shoulder. Caught off guard, Lostur was pushed to the side by every ounce of strength Kyra had, causing him to let go of the knife. Snatching the knife from where it had been stabbed in the floor, Kyra pounced on top of Lostur, and wasted no time in stabbing his chest. " _ **DON'T FUCKING TALK ABOUT NAX THAT WAY, YOU FUCKING BASTARD PIECE OF SHIT! I'LL KILL YOU!**_ " Kyra screamed, enraged at what this monster had put her through, and had the gall to threaten her with. She stabbed him at each word for emphasis, completely blinded by her emotions and personal feelings, focusing solely on killing Lostur.

When the bloodlust subsided, Kyra looked down at her work. Lostur had both of his hands clutching Kyra's arm as she held the knife in his throat, his grip slowly weakening and eyes glazing over. Kyra slowly removed the knife from his throat, and all that came from him was a weak, bloody gurgle, before Lostur's head rolled to the side, and he let go of Kyra's arm.

Lostur was… dead?

The realization didn't have long to strike Kyra before her thoughts were interrupted by someone else. "Boss!" Kaz suddenly yelled, and Kyra scarcely had time to get up and meet the charging Weequay woman. Raising the knife to stab her, Kyra instead was punched in the face, disarmed of the knife, and on the floor, looking down the barrel of a blaster pistol. "Yer 'onna pay for what you did to Lostur, bitch!" Kaz yelled, both enraged and saddened.

Before Kaz could kill Kyra, however, there was the sound of a blaster rifle shot to Kyra's left, and a red bolt hit Kaz in the head, killing her instantly and sending her careening into the wall. Confused, Kyra looked down the ramp, and up came a small squad of stormtroopers. They immediately moved to secure the bridge, while one stormtrooper with red armor trim and a red pauldron with a white cross on it tended to Kyra. "Are you alright, ma'am?" his vocoder cracked, checking Kyra for any visible wounds.

"…I am, thanks. Are you a medic?" she asked, already knowing the answer. The stormtrooper nodded as he continued to look Kyra over. "My friend got shot – he needs medical treatment soon or he'll die. Please, you have to help him!" Kyra pleaded, hoping it wasn't too late for Nax.

The medic looked over to who Kyra assumed was the squad leader and repeated what she said. He glanced at her, and then back to the medic. "Take four guys and go check it out. Shoot her if it's an ambush." he ordered through the vocoder, taking two of his men further into the bridge to secure it.

Kyra stood up and grabbed the stormtrooper by the arm, practically dragging him back to the slave holdings. "This way! Come on!"

* * *

Kyra was escorted to the bridge of the _Sandtrap_ by a squad of stormtroopers, who left her as soon as she was on the bridge. Civilians weren't normally allowed on the bridges of Star Destroyers for fairly obvious reasons, but Weyland apparently made an exception for Kyra.

Weyland greeted her with a firm handshake. "Greetings, Miss Kyra. I would have asked you to debrief me personally, but someone you may know was involved with this operation, so I find it prudent that you debrief us both." Weyland said, maintaining a professional attitude, before moving to the communications console. As the lights in the room dimmed, Weyland pressed several buttons, and a hologram of Gaffi appeared on the console.

" _Something to report, Weyland?_ " Gaffi asked.

Captain Weyland stood up straight. "Yes sir; the Cranky Bantha was disabled by my fleet and boarded approximately twenty minutes ago. I have someone prepared to debrief you." he said, and Kyra stepped into the hologram's projector.

"Hello, sir." she said respectfully.

Gaffi appeared at least slightly surprised. " _Ah, Miss Kyra, I was expecting you. Tell us, what happened on the Cranky Bantha?_ "

She nervously scratched the back of her neck. "…Well, I'm not sure of the specific times, but when I woke up from being stunned, I thought I was in a nightmare. I woke Nax up, and we were trying to figure out how to escape. That's when Lostur and two others came down to the hold to taunt us." she sniffled briefly, before refocusing on Gaffi. "Nax defied them, so they shot and killed Thel. Then they talked more, and then Lostur just… shot Nax. Snapped me back to reality." Kyra explained, and Gaffi appeared curious.

" _How did you escape?_ "

"Two traitors in Lostur's crew set Lexi and myself free after giving Nax a bacta shot to stabilize him. After that, we freed the other slaves and led a rebellion on the ship."

"Those would be Dav Foss and... "Bolthead", I believe. They've been remarkably co-operative with our questioning, and appear to not be involved with Lostur's more... egregious crimes." Weyland added.

" _…I see. And what became of Lostur?_ " Gaffi inquired.

Kyra swallowed, not out of fear, just nervousness. "I tried to arrest him, turn him in for the bounty. He ended up tackling me and tried to stab me, managed to disarm him and ended up killing him."

Gaffi appeared thoughtful. " _I see. Is Nax okay?_ "

Before Kyra could respond, Captain Weyland spoke first. "To my knowledge, yes. Our medical staff are currently treating him right now. Speaking of – Kyra, you're free to see him. I'll take over the debrief from here." Weyland said, dismissing her. "The medbay is on deck three, Nax is in room two hundred."

With that, Kyra left the bridge, taking the lift down to deck three.

Now that she had some time to herself, she thought about everything that had transpired in the past hour or so. She had been broken out of being a slave, hastily organized a slave rebellion, and killed the man who would have hunted her the galaxy over, all in under an hour.

She was truly free now, and she had no idea how to go forward. She still hadn't told Nax that she had nowhere to go, and she wasn't sure what to do now, but the feeling of finally being free was exhilarating to her, and she couldn't help but smile. Opting to take her mind off the long ride to deck three, Kyra began to think of a song she could vaguely remember. No memories of how she learned it, of course, just the song itself.

It wasn't long before Kyra was humming along to it, until she was interrupted by the lift suddenly stopping. She opened her eyes, and the digital counter near the lift panel showed up as "DECK THREE," and then the doors slid open. Stepping out into the moderately busy corridor, Kyra looked around for any indicator of where Nax's room. Spinning around on her heels, Kyra's eyes darted around, partially slackjawed.

"Excuse me, miss? Can I help you?" a stormtrooper asked behind her, and Kyra almost gave herself whiplash with how fast she spun around to face him. It was actually the stormtrooper medic who had given Nax additional aid before he was brought on-board the _Sandtrap_ , or at least going off of his voice, he was.

Kyra blinked several times, and then finally managed to respond. "Y-yeah. Where's room two hundred?"

The stormtrooper took his helmet off, and gestured further down the hall. "This way, ma'am." he said. The medic was obviously young, but he still bore the scars of combat, namely a slash down the middle of his face, but he was otherwise very handsome. Bright blue eyes and golden blonde hair that was just _barely_ regulation standard, but he radiated warmth, like the kinda guy you'd have some Jawa Juice with and shoot the shit. "Going to see your friend?" he asked, trying to be friendly.

Kyra rubbed her shoulder. "Yeah." she replied, and the medic laughed.

"Hah, I know the feeling. Empire takes care of their own, but it doesn't hurt to check up on my buddies after the action." the medic said, keeping his spirits up. "Say – you sounded pretty shook up when you told me that he was shot. I don't mean to pry, but that sounded like you two were more than just friends from the tone of your voice back there." the medic said, suddenly serious now.

Caught off-guard, Kyra tried to deflect the question. "We're just bounty hunting partners, probably gonna go our separate ways when all is said and done." she replied, a hint of sadness in her voice.

The medic nodded in understanding, surprisingly. "I see." he responded as they rounded the corner.

"I'm Kyra, by the way." she suddenly said.

"Huh?" the medic said, surprised, before catching up with what she was doing. "Oh. I'm TM-Six-Eight-Twenty-Two." the medic said, matter-of-factly.

Kyra just giggled. "Forget your real name?"

The medic looked dumbstruck for a moment, and then snapped to reality again. "Sorry, it's just that I'm so used to dealing with uptight officers all the time. I'm Lehvan Ulgo." he finally greeted.

Another Ulgo?

Kyra wasn't alone in thinking that, as three men asked him what he meant by Ulgo. "I'm from Alderaan." Lehvan answered. "Lower on the hierarchy, but I'm still an Ulgo nonetheless."

"No way! So are we! We were with Lorn on a mission planetside, got kidnapped and ended up on that hellhole 'vette!" one of them said, shocked.

Lehvan tapped Kyra on the shoulder and pointed further ahead. "Go on, room two hundred's just there on the left. I wanna talk to these guys, maybe get Lorn on the horn for them." he said, chatting with the three men like they were childhood friends.

…Just how big was House Ulgo?

Shaking it off, Kyra brushed past a few uniformed officers and headed to room two hundred. The room itself was spacious enough. Had enough space to hold a bacta tank, everything to support the tank, and a droid charging station for the on-duty 2-1B droid, who was currently observing Nax, floating in the tank. As soon as the door automatically shut behind her, the surgical droid turned and waved her over. "How is he?" Kyra asked out of concern.

The droid glanced back at Nax. "He was near death when he was brought in. The blaster he was shot with penetrated most of the tissue – hit him between the right lung and his heart, nicked the sternum. He's lucky to even be alive." the droid said in a masculine, but monotone voice.

"Between the lung and heart?" Kyra pressed.

"Yes – hit them both, but penetrating that deep slowed the bolt enough that it didn't do full damage to either organ."

Kyra stared at Nax, sleeping in the tank as the bacta inside healed him. "That's not gonna cause long-term problems, is it?"

The droid shook its head. "No. The bacta I've administered will have healed any potential damage in a day's time." the droid dutifully answered, before pausing. "You're welcome to stay as long as you don't touch any of the medical equipment."

Nodding, Kyra opted to watch Nax in silence, refusing to leave the room until he was out.

* * *

Finding himself floating in a bacta tank wasn't exactly the first thing Nax expected to open his eyes to. Through the blue tinted water, Nax could see that he was in a room that looked much like a medbay, and not like the hellhole slave pen he had been in before.

Just where was he?

Looking around while being sure not to accidentally tear the breathing mask off, he could see someone approaching the tank. White hair, familiar duster…

Kyra.

She pressed her hand up against the glass, and Nax gave her a thumbs up to acknowledge that he knew she was there. A door opened further back in the room, and a humanoid figure stepped through, catching Kyra's attention. The figure then gestured towards the open door, and Kyra walked out. The figure – now obviously a droid, approached the tank's control panel and hit several buttons, before pushing what looked sort of like a lever down.

Nax felt the sensation of rushing water going down his body, and the bacta drained into the bottom of the tank, leaving him standing. The mask almost immediately popped off automatically, and then the door to the tank slid open, letting him walk out. The medical droid that had let him free handed him a towel. "Dry yourself off. Your clothes and weapons are in the corner, and I've left details of your injuries on your datapad." it said in a matter-of-fact manner. "Also, your friend wishes to speak with you."

Nax gave the droid a nod of acknowledgement, and quickly dried off, before slipping into his normal clothes. As he did so, he heard the faint hum of a ship's engine. "Say, where am I?" he asked the droid as he threw his duster on.

"You're on-board the Imperial Interdictor _Sandtrap_ , in orbit around Tatooine, sir. You were brought in from the _Cranky Bantha_ by your friend and given immediate medical treatment."

Nax gave another nod of acknowledgement, this time more hesitant. Taking his Deecee and scattergun, Nax threw them over his back by the slings, and then put his hat on. Just as he did, Kyra entered the room, brushing past the medical droid who was leaving the medbay.

The two of them just stared at each other silently, until Kyra ran up to Nax, grappling him into a tearful hug. "…I thought you were done for…" she said, clearly elated, as she tightened her grip around Nax.

"It sure as hell felt like I was." Nax remarked as Kyra pulled herself away from Nax, but still staying in the hug. "Speaking of – what the hell happened after I got shot? Why are we on an Interdictor?" Nax questioned.

Kyra closed her eyes and swallowed, preparing to speak. "…Well, after you got shot, I kind of just… broke. I wanted to give up, let it all go up in smoke. Two of Lostur's men came to me-"

"Who?"

"The smuggler captain, and I think one of the ones who found me when you turned Vark in. They turned traitor and were gonna break us out. The captain is actually the one that got you stabilized long enough for a medic to treat you and bring you to the _Sandtrap_."

"…I'll give him my thanks, but continue."

Kyra wiped a tear from her eye, and shook her head. "Right, so, they bust us out, and I remembered something you said to me, about you not having any of my "defeatist garbage", especially from your partner. After that, it was like I was a totally different person. I took charge of the slaves, lead them to the armory, and then went to the bridge to grab Lostur." Kyra explained, her expression dimming a bit.

"…And?"

Kyra swallowed again. "…Well, he disarmed me and forced me the ground. He was going to stab me in the face, said he'd make me sleep with your corpse. He even threatened to turn me into the crew's…" Kyra said, stopping herself. "…t-the crew's…" she struggled, before burying her head in Nax's chest. "…'rape-meat'." she said in a hushed, almost shameful tone.

Nax pulled her back into the hug. "Suns, Kyra…" he said, shocked and bereft of words. Although, perhaps Nax shouldn't be too surprised that Lostur would go that far.

"…A-after that, I kind of just… saw red. I overpowered him, and didn't stop stabbing until he was dead. I… I'm sorry that I screwed up the bounty, Nax." Kyra apologized, and Nax was frozen still. "…Are you mad at me?"

Nax suddenly pulled Kyra into the strongest hug she had ever felt. "No – I'm proud of you. Damn proud. I don't care about losing out on the full bounty, you killed the bastard that would've hunted you 'till the end of days." Nax said gleefully, tightening his grip on Kyra. "The death price is enough to get us a ride out of here, anyways." he continued, before getting close to her ear. "And to think; you thought you were useless, yet you managed to kill Lostur." Nax whispered to her. "Be proud of that."

Kyra couldn't help but smile.

The two of them stayed like that for what felt like hours, but was really only a few minutes. There was a distant, but familiar electronic gurgling, and the door opened again with Arfive, the strange droid that Thel owned, and Lexi. "There you two are!" Lexi greeted as the pair broke their hug up. "We've been looking for you for hours!"

Arfive and the strange droid both gurgled and beeped out a hello, before Arfive bumped Nax in the knee. "Ow." Nax playfully said, before looking at Thel's droid. "When the hell did that droid get fixed?" Nax asked.

Lexi glanced at the droid. "A few days back. Arfive actually did most of the work, and for reference, she's Teethree-Kay-Tee, but Arfive's just taken to calling her Katy, and so have I." Lexi stated, petting the droid's pan head. "Now come on, we've got a shuttle waiting to take us down to Tatooine."

* * *

As soon as the shuttle landed, Nax was already at the ramp, waiting it for it to drop down. As it slowly descended, Gaffi's figure became more evident, as did the contingent of stormtroopers with him.

"Strag." Gaffi said.

"Sir?"

Gaffi fished around in his uniform, and pulled out a credit stick for Nax to take, which he did. "Your payment, one hundred thousand Imperial standard credits, as detailed in the bounty listing."

"…But I didn't take Lostur down – Kyra did." Nax corrected, confused.

"Correct. Kyra also lacks the account to transfer the funds to. While setting an account up is easy, doing it on Tatooine is less so, and with the amount of funds you've just been given, I'd prefer having them out of reach of the common mugger. Wouldn't you agree?"

Nax shrugged. "…Yeah, I see your point."

Gaffi turned his attention further up the ramp. "Speaking of – Miss Kyra," Gaffi said to Kyra, who was just now going down the ramp. "You've done not only a great service to the Empire, but also to the people of the Outer Rim. You have not only my thanks, but the thanks of untold thousands of sentients. You and I both know how much of a monster Lostur was, and we'll all be sleeping easier knowing that he's dead and gone."

"…Thank you, sir." Kyra said respectfully.

Gaffi then turned back to Nax. "I'm also aware of your speeder situation. Specifically, your lackthereof. As such, I'm giving you an impounded V-35 that is now technically property of the Empire. Considering the fact that you'll probably want to take your belongings and the lack of space on a BARC speeder, this is probably best for you." Gaffi explained, before checking his chronometer. "That said, I have business to attend to."

With that, Gaffi and the stormtroopers left the docking bay, leaving Lexi, Nax, Kyra, and the two droids to themselves. Heading outside, they immediately laid eyes on their new speeder, which was as Gaffi said, a V-35 Courier. Opening the side doors, the interior was actually kinda stupid looking. The driver seat was in the middle of the speeder, between the two passenger seats on the side. Behind that was the storage space for basically whatever the hell you wanted.

Pushing the passenger seat down, Nax picked Arfive up and set him in the cargo area, before doing the same with Katy, and then pushing the seat back up. Sliding into the driver seat, Lexi sat to his left, while Kyra slid over the hood and hopped in to his right. As soon as they were in, Nax set the speeder off for the homestead.

The ride there was thankfully uneventful – no pirates or slavers to watch over their shoulder for, no insurgent ambushes or Imperial stops, just a calm drive home. Of course, that didn't stop Lexi and Kyra from bickering over how little space there was to sit in the speeder.

Nax blew air up into his face. _"Family speeder my ass."_ he thought as the two girls fidgeted in their seats.

A good while later, and they finally arrived at the entrance to the homestead. As the door opened and Nax parked the Courier inside, the three of them got out, with Lexi taking Arfive and Katy out for the time being, while all five of them headed downstairs. "You wanna head out tonight?" Kyra asked, sticking close to Nax, who looked at the wall chrono.

"…Nah, I feel like hell. Let's pack the stuff up, eat, sleep, and then we head out, first thing in the morning." Nax replied, yawning.

Kyra seemed to nod, and headed into the living room with Lexi, Arfive and Katy following her.

Nax, however, went into his dad's room at the end of the hallway, and turned to the cabinet near the door, picking up Zeethree's detached head and flicking it on. The protocol droid's eyes came to life, staring at Nax. "Greetings, Master Strag. What can I do for you?" he asked in his usual chipper voice.

"Not much, Zeethree, just that we're leaving this hellhole tomorrow. And you're coming with. You'll get a new body!" Nax exclaimed, seeming happy for the first time in forever, or at least, to Zeethree.

Zeethree's eyes brightened. "Really, Master Strag?" the droid questioned. "I'm going to get a new body! I'm going to get a new body!" he prattled, before calming himself. "…Master Strag?"

"Mhm?"

"…I believe your father left a message for you to see when you inevitably left Tatooine. He probably wanted you to see it – it's in the top drawer of this cabinet."

Nax immediately set Zeethree's head on top of the cabinet, and practically yanked the top drawer out. Buried under a small collection of clothes was something small and metallic; large enough to fit in the palm of Nax's hand, but not big enough to be cumbersome. Fishing it out, Nax fumbled with it.

It was a holocommunicator.

Checking for any sort of switch or anything, Nax scanned over the communicator, and eventually found a button. Pressing it down, a hologram appeared. Specifically, a hologram of a much younger Cobro, carrying both Nax and Trax as infants.

Nax felt a temporary pang of sadness seeing that, and then whatever was on the communicator began to play.

" _Hello, Nax. Trax. I hope this message finds you both well."_

Nax's head sank a bit.

" _If you're hearing this message, then I'm gone. However you found this message, I don't know, but that doesn't matter. What does matter is what I have to say, so listen very carefully."_ the hologram continued, holding the two infants closer and higher so as to not drop them, before it flickered. _"I don't blame you if you end up wanting to leave Tatooine. It wasn't my first choice, but circumstances forced my hand."_ the recording continued, before Cobro turned his head to the side, and then returned to whatever he was facing. _"Before you leave, though, I have a gift for the both of you. Under my bed, there's a small, red button. I want you to press it."_ the recording said, before pausing, the hologram shimmering as if it was waiting for a signal to continue.

Nax looked over at the bed hesitantly, and approached it, kneeling down to look under the bed, with one hand holding the communicator on the mattress, and the other searching under the bed for the button. His hand eventually bumped into something that felt sort of like plastoid. Grabbing it, Nax realized it was the button, and pushed up with a satisfying _click_.

As he got out from under the bed, the wall towards the back of the room began to… move?

Getting closer to investigate, the wall vanished into the sides of the room, leaving a dark, empty space.

And then the lights kicked on, making Nax's jaw _**drop**_.

" _That gift, my sons, is our armor. Both mine, and Bo's. I have no use for either of them anymore. They're yours now."_ the recording said with a smile.

" _Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum bintar, ner ade."_ it whispered, before fading out.

Gently setting the communicator on the bed, Nax went to examine the armors. "I love you both, my sons." Zeethree suddenly translated, sounding rather mournful. As Nax took his father's helmet off of its mount, he stared into the visor, with the invisible person inside staring right back at him. Both sets of armor were in muted greyscale tones, excepting the undersuits, which were a cream, almost sandy color. His dad's armor looked like it could fit him fine, but he wasn't sure what to do with his mom's suit.

"…Thank you, dad." Nax whispered to himself.

Glancing over at his mother's armor, Nax bit his lip. Should he sell it? Mandalorian armor wasn't cheap, but…

An idea suddenly popped into his head, and Nax set his father's helmet back on its stand, and then flipped the light switch inside, darkening out everything inside of the false wall. Brushing past the doorway, Nax walked to the living room to find Lexi and Kyra happily chatting with each other. He rapped on the wall a few times to get their attention. "Kyra, can you c'mere for a sec? I've got something for you." Nax said, trying his best to hide a smile.

Kyra glanced at Lexi, and then got up, following Nax back into his father's room. "Sure, what's up?" Kyra asked innocently as she was led into the dark room. "…Uh, Nax?" she called out in the darkness.

Nax flipped the switch, and the lights kicked on, revealing the armors. "Surprise, Kyra."

Kyra stared at the armors, and then at Nax, and then back to the armors. "I…" she struggled, running her hand through her hair. "I thought you weren't a Mandalorian?" Kyra asked, confused.

"I'm not." Nax replied, before pointing at the armors. "But my parents were. Come on, let's see how my mom's armor fits you."

Kyra blinked, and then snapped to Nax. "Wait, you're _giving_ me one of them?"

Nodding, Nax began to carefully take the suit from its rack, looking for a way to get Kyra into it. "I mean, I'd rather not sell it if someone I trust can make use of it." he replied, having managed to get it off the wall. After around ten minutes of fumbling with the armor, Kyra managed to get inside the armor, wearing everything except the helmet. "How's it feel?" Nax asked.

Admiring the armplates, Kyra tried moving her arms and legs around a bit. "…Feels a bit snug?" she commented. "A bit heavy, too." she said as she swung her arms around.

Nax put his hand on her shoulder. "You'll get used to it." he said in a reassuring manner. "Before I let you go back to Lexi, though, I gotta ask – where do you want to go?"

Kyra looked at him, confused. "Huh?" she asked, not sure what he was referring to.

"I mean our deal's basically done. All that's left now is to drop you off on whatever planet you want, then we can all go our separate ways and move on with our lives." Nax elaborated. "You got any family? Any home I can take you to?"

Kyra looked thoughtful, trying to remember something that could help get her home. Wherever home _was_ , anyways. "…No." she replied flatly.

Nax raised an eyebrow. "You don't have anything?"

Kyra shook her head. "I probably do, but I don't remember anything before waking up on that hellhole of a ship." she explained, looking over at Zeethree's head. "I didn't tell you because I didn't want it to distract you."

Pursing his lips, Nax glanced at the remaining suit of armor. "So… what now?"

Kyra sighed, inching her hand closer to Nax's. "Well… I was hoping you would…" she said, her tone leading as she looked to Nax. "…take me with you?" Kyra poised.

Looking at her, surprised, Nax took this in. "…You actually want to come along with me?" he asked. "I would've thought that you wanted to get away, go live a normal life. Not to stick with me."

Kyra shook her head again. "Being a bounty hunter's about the only thing I know right now. And if it's with you, well… it can't be that bad, can it?"

Considering her words, Nax closed his eyes. "If you really, actually, truly do want to come with me, then… sure." he said, accepting Kyra's request.

Eyes beaming, Kyra gently grabbed Nax's hand and squeezed it, causing a light blush to appear on her face. "…Thank you." she said graciously, internally exceptionally enthusiastic about getting to see the galaxy with Nax.

Suddenly, Lexi ran into the room. "Hey, you two know that dinner's…" she said, seemingly annoyed, before cutting herself off at the sight of Kyra wearing Mandalorian armor. "…Where the…?" she continued, and then noticed the armor on the wall, falling silent.

"Don't touch it." Nax ordered sternly.

Lexi shrugged. "Fine by me; Mando gear isn't my style anyway. Now c'mon, dinner's gonna get cold if you two keep holding hands like you're in love." Lexi joked, causing Kyra's face to get redder than before, and she pulled away from Nax, heading to the kitchen to get her food.

* * *

After hours of travelling, the trio finally pulled into Mos Espa. Nax was driving the V-35 with most of their belongings, including the three droids, inside, while Kyra and Lexi were on the BARC speeders that the Jawas had given them. Checking his datapad one last time, Nax pulled up the advertisement for the starfighter, and checked the name of the shop.

Eemir's Ships.

The sign above the entrance said the same thing.

Bringing the V-35 to a halt, Kyra and Lexi did the same, getting off the speeders and joining Nax as he climbed out of the Courier, bumping his head against the roof accidentally, still not used to the Mandalorian helmet. The shop itself was fairly basic; a squat, rectangular building that probably led to a large lot in the back with a heavily stylized sign out front.

Heading inside, there was a door chime signaling that they had just entered. "Coming!" a man said further back in the store. While they waited, the three of them poked around, picking up some droid parts or other oddities, and then setting them back down. A short while later, and a blonde human with a goatee came to the counter. "Hello, I'm Avadi Eemir, welcome to my…" the man said, before stopping himself at the sight of Nax and Kyra in Mandalorian armor. "…Woah." he said, in awe at the two of them. "…What can I do for you?" Eemir offered, watching his tone so as to not upset the two of them.

Nax fished around in his duster, pulled out his datapad, and showed the advertisement to Eemir. "We're looking for this starfighter. Is it still for sale?" Nax asked.

Eemir sucked some air in and bit his lip. "I'm sorry to say, but that ARC-170 was sold weeks ago. Jabba's men came and bought it off of me." he answered, leaning over the counter. "What were you hoping to use it for? I might have something similar you could take."

"Bounty hunting, mostly."

Avadi looked at Nax like he was crazy, but quickly wiped the look away. "In that case, I'd advise _against_ buying a starfighter. Too little space for the long trips you'll need to go on." he said, pointing at himself. "Take it from someone who used to be in the business."

Lexi stepped up to the counter. "So, what would you suggest we buy?" she asked, impatiently tapping on its surface, eyeing Eemir.

Scratching his goatee, Avadi appeared to be lost in thought. "Well, if you're using it for bounty hunting, I'd suggest maybe a YT series. With the three of you, a Firespray – not that I have one – would be too cramped, so…" Avadi led, before pulling out a datapad and checking it. "Looks like you're in luck! I've got a Thirteen-Hundred in the back of the lot. Twenty thou."

Standing up a bit straighter, Lexi leaned on her side against the counter. "Anything done to it?" she inquired.

Avadi paused, about to shake his head no, and then nodded, as if he had just remembered something. "Come on, I'll show it to you." he said, motioning for the trio to follow him through the back door.

The back-lot was actually a fair bit smaller than what they had expected, only holding about four starships, the YT included. The other three were a war-torn BTL-B Y-Wing, a newer looking X-Wing, and a Scyk that looked like it went through a supernova. On the left, following the wall, there was also a secondary entrance to the lot that led out to the street, large enough to fit a speeder through.

As they approached the freighter, the starboard ramp descended, and Avadi lead them up into the main corridor of the ship, taking them around clockwise. The first room was some obviously a passenger cabin for extremely long trips. A tad cramped, but it had three bunks that looked moderately comfortable.

Continuing on without stopping, the next area was the engineering bay, with a lot of obviously non-stock parts, excepting the hyperdrive, which was the original Avatar-10 the ship probably rolled off the production line with. Lexi pointed the hyperdrive out. "What rating is that Avvy ten?" she asked.

Avadi glanced at it from across the engineering bay. "I think the guy that had it last brought it down to a class one – I ran some checks between here and Geonosis, and the speed matches. Had a look at the insides – the coaxium reactant chamber's fairly consistent with SCRAMmed hyperdrives."

Lexi nodded in approval. "Gotcha." she said, and the trio continued past the port airlock and into the kitchen, with Avadi showing off the relatively modern equipment, as well as the lounge, which had a holotable loaded up with Dejarik and some sort of electronic card-based strategy game. Finally, they headed to the cockpit, which looked decently new. The seat leather was unfortunately dried, though, so they were sort of uncomfortable to sit in.

"So, what do you think?" Avadi asked, hoping to make a sale on the freighter.

"I dunno, this thing looks like it's fairly well kept, but for twenty thousand credits…?" Nax said, suspicious of Avadi. "What's the catch?"

"Catch?" Avadi said, offended. "Who do you take me for? Watto? No, I'm a legitimate businessman, I don't sell half-assed parts like that conniving Toydarian. I just want this damn ship out of my lot." he elaborated.

Seemingly accepting Eemir's response, Nax pulled his datapad out. "Alright. I'll take it. Kyra, Lex, get the ship loaded with the BARCs and everything in the Courier." Nax directed, and the two nodded, heading to fetch the speeders.

Within an hour, the YT was fully loaded, and they were halfway out of Tatooine's atmosphere.

"…You know, I'm kinda gonna miss this place." Nax waxed nostalgically as he flew the ship, albeit with some help from Arfive.

"I thought you weren't the sentimental type?" Kyra replied, curious about Nax's sudden change in attitude.

"I'm not, but Tatooine has its charms."

"It has charm?" Kyra replied sarcastically.

Nax smirked. "Fair enough."

Finally having broken the atmosphere, Nax stared at the thousands of stars through the cockpit window. Hands shaking a bit, the feeling of unparalleled freedom to go anywhere in the galaxy he wanted only just hit him. It genuinely never occurred to him just how stuck he felt on Tatooine.

"Arfive, set a course for Coruscant." Nax commanded, and Arfive gurgled something that vaguely sounded like acknowledgement, before plugging in to the astromech slot in the cockpit and communicating with the hyperdrive and navicomputer, while Katy just watched him work.

As the stars turned to lines, Nax got up, dragging Kyra with him. "I think this calls for a drink." Nax said, referring to a small amount of whiskey he had brought with him from home.

The entire galaxy was at their fingertips, and they were only just getting started.

* * *

 **That's the end of this chapter.**

 **So, they're finally off of Tatooine. I've got a general idea of the plotline I want to do on Coruscant, but in the meantime, here's some bonus trivia.**

 **-The Cranky Bantha fight was originally going to involve the Sandtrap and the Arquitens attacking further in-depth, with a planned run at the gravity wells to escape. I ended up not doing that and just self-inserting my Empire at War tactics, which is mass fuckmurder with fighters and bombers.**

 **-The song that Kyra was humming was actually going to be Across the Stars from AOTC. It still is, but I just removed the details due to them not fitting particularly well.**

 **-The YT-1300 that Nax is in possession of was originally going to be an ARC-170, until I realized the problems that would pose for a bounty hunter such as transporting bounties and also long periods of travel, especially the latter after having read Heir to the Empire where Luke has to basically hibernate at several points.**

 **-Watto was originally going to be the one in possession of the ARC-170, until I changed it to Avadi (who is actually an SWG character of mine!) due to not wanting to have to rely on existing characters in Star Wars for plot stuff.**

 **-There was going to be a bit where the Courier broke down in the Great Salt Flat, and the three of them would have to go to the Lars homestead for help, where Luke would fix the speeder for them. I cut this due to the chapter already being long enough.**

 **-The card based strategy game mentioned with the holotable isn't a reference to Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh or some shit, it's actually a cleaned up, canon friendly version of the Galaxy of Heroes mobile game.**

 **Also, I strongly advise listening to "Under Cover of Night" from Halo CE as you imagine the ending here.**

 **Please leave a review!**

' **Till next time.**

 **-Tweak**


	10. New World, New Jobs

**So, I suppose I owe you guys an explanation for why this took so long to get out, huh?**

 **The initial explanation is that I have ZERO time management skills, but a more recent (and relevant) one is that I literally don't have access to my own house for the next few months. Basically, we're tearing the whole bathroom out and replacing it, and it was SUPPOSED to take about three weeks to get done. The only problem is that our fucking drainage pipe collapsed, so that needs to be wholly replaced. As a result, my family has pretty much moved in with our grandparents for the next several months. Fun!**

 **Sorry about that. Anyways, to reviews.**

 **To Belmakori: In retrospect, yeah, the trust thing was a bit rushed, could've probably done that better. As for Kyra making herself at home so fast, Nax said "I've got a safe place for you to stay, and a bed for you to sleep in", plus he gave her a room, but whatever, it's done now.**

 **Friendly reminder to read, review, and shill this to your friends and anywhere you are that might be remotely interested in this.**

* * *

Kyra found herself in the engine bay of the freighter, a hazy, sickening fog clouding her mind and thoughts. The electrical hum of the machines behind her working, the whir of hyperspace echoing into the ship from the endless void outside. But something was… wrong.

It was bitingly cold inside the ship, and no matter how Kyra tried to warm herself, she just couldn't. Not by getting close to the hyperdrive, not by cupping her hands together and blowing into them, not even by covering herself with more of Trax's duster.

And then she noticed the smell.

It was a horrible, sickly smell, as if a wound had been infected and left to ferment for months. It made Kyra sick to her stomach. Putrid didn't even begin to describe it. She coughed and hacked and wheezed, covering her mouth and nose to little effect. The stench was simply too strong.

Resolving to find Nax and Lexi, Kyra hobbled along the corridor, leaning on the walls for support. She hadn't even cleared the engine bay when she collapsed on her side, the noxious gasses already taking their toll on her. Eyes watering, Kyra barely had the strength to lift her head up and look ahead. "Arfive?" she shouted ahead, hoping the astromech would hear her. There was a distorted electronic gurgling coming from further ahead, likely in the cockpit. Relieved that Arfive was awake, Kyra slowly dragged herself through the reminder of the corridor.

Nobody else was in the ship from what she could tell. The living quarters were totally deserted, although the door was ajar.

…Had she been travelling on her own?

Taking a quick break, Kyra regained her strength, and got back to her feet, slowly heading through the tube to the cockpit. The blue hyperspace tunnel was reflecting off the walls, but when she turned the corner, it didn't take long for it to register that the cockpit was totally abandoned.

No Nax, no Lexi, not even the droids. She was totally alone.

Going further into the cockpit, she took a seat in the copilot's chair, looking at the readouts. She'd been in hyperspace for nearly a week, apparently. The travel log on screen showed her as being way out in the Unknown Regions, far from recorded civilized space.

Kyra pondered just what the hell she had missed, and then the consoles started blaring warning sirens suddenly. Taken off-guard, Kyra quickly looked out the cockpit window. The hyperspace tunnel slowed down, and then dissipated, with the streaks turning back to stars.

What Kyra saw, thousands of kilometers away from where she was in the new star system, was something she had never seen before. Two massive rings inside of each other, one standing vertically, with the other standing horizontal. They both met at the midpoints, and their surfaces appeared to be… worlds? Continents, oceans, islands. Everything.

But there was something wrong with it. As if there was a malicious, evil aura about the structure. Something horrible was there, and she could feel it. Whatever _it_ was.

Kyra didn't have much time to process what she was seeing before there were slow, heavy footfalls behind her. Slowly turning around, she saw the barely describable horror that she had been apparently sharing the ship with. It was tall, or long, whatever, but its upper torso was poking into the cockpit, and that was only half of its body. Its arms were freakishly long, and its body emaciated. Instead of a head, though, it had a constantly contorting and twisting nightmarish hellface, with no logic or structure as to why it was constantly shifting form, and the only constant was a silent, eternal scream. The first face Kyra recognized was that of Lexi's, then it mutated into a horrid disfigurement of Nax, then to Lostur's monstrous expression when he had her pinned, and then finally to herself, with that same scream.

Strapped to its horribly disfigured waist were the unconscious or dead bodies of Nax and Lexi, both of whom were bleeding profusely.

 _S_

Disregarding the words she had just heard in her head, Kyra reached for her holster, only to start screaming as the figure reached out to grab her, its gaping maw wide open.

* * *

"Kyra!" Nax shouted, shaking her as she slept, causing her to dart up in shock and in a cold sweat, hyperventilating. Kyra's eyes shot around the room, and she eased back into normalcy. Nax was at her side in the bed, with Lexi, Arfive, and Katy staring at her, all of them concerned. "Are you okay?" Nax asked with a firm grip on her shoulders, trying to keep her steady.

Her breathing relaxing, Kyra swallowed, shut her eyes, and ran her hand through her white hair, trying to straighten it out. She then leaned on Nax, relieved. "…Yeah." she said in a low tone, audibly unsure of her own answer.

Nax cautiously held on to her. "…Are you sure?" he pressed out of concern. "You were tossing and turning like crazy, and then you just started screaming."

Opting to remain silent, Kyra opened her eyes and silently nodded.

Lexi then came over to offer her help. "…It wasn't about Lostur, was it?" she asked, hoping to pry an answer from the obviously upset Kyra.

Shaking her head, Kyra got closer to Nax for protection. "…No." Kyra replied, before looking at Arfive. "…It was just night terrors. I'm fine." she finished, with her noble elegance that Nax first heard in Chalmun's making something of a faulty return.

Nax seemingly accepted her response, however, and sat up, throwing his duster on. He then left the room with Arfive, Lexi, and Katy in tow, and Kyra scrambled to follow him. Turns out, he was going to the cockpit. Right outside the thin transparisteel window wasn't the ringworld Kyra had been expecting, but rather…

"Wow, Coruscant?" Lexi said, mesmerized. "It's been _years_."

They had arrived at the glittering ecumenopolis of Coruscant, with a massive fleet of Star Destroyers, corvettes, and uncountable defense battlestations orbiting the world.

"You've been here before?" Nax asked, as he and Kyra sat down in the pilot and copilot seats, respectively, curious as to how much she knew about the planet. Nax had never ever left Tatooine before, and Kyra presumably travelled very little, so every little bit helped.

"Mhm." Lexi replied as she took an empty swig of her bottle, looked down into it, and set it on Katy's head like a coaster, causing the droid to verbally gurgle and beep in protest, to ill effect. "Been probably… three years? I'm twenty now, so… yeah, that sounds about right." she answered, looking lost in thought, and then she snapped back to reality. "Oh! You two are fully fledged mercs now, right?"

Kyra and Nax both nodded.

Lexi tilted her head as she looked at the mass of Star Destroyers, and then spoke again. "I know a guy who's probably wanting some hired guns. Old family friend – runs a cantina down in the lower levels. 1313, I think."

"What's a cantina owner need hired guns for on Coruscant?" Kyra asked innocently.

Lexi stared at her for a brief moment, and then realized that Kyra must not have been to Coruscant before. "Lower levels are full of crime. If you thought Tatooine was bad, wait 'till you see 1313."

Nax smirked as he eased down on the thrust, sending the ship towards the planet. "I've heard rumors from travelers that the place is a hellhole." he said, focusing on some sensor readings to the side, before transferring from the sublight drives to the repulsorlifts. "Should make for a nice cashflow, what with all the bounties we can turn in."

Within three minutes, they were hovering above the city, staring out at the vast, urban landscape illuminated only by lights and neon signs mounted on towering skyscrapers. Airspeeder traffic flowed at what felt like a hundred different locations – behind skyscrapers, out from buildings on the ground, from behind clouds – everywhere. It was such a different atmosphere from Tatooine, Nax felt overwhelmed mentally.

Lexi put her hand over Nax's shoulder, and pointed between two buildings far off in the distance. "Fly there, this all looks fairly familiar to me."

Doing as directed, Nax flew the freighter over the sprawling cityscape. Arfive and Katy were both chirping in droidspeak at each other. "[I haven't been here since the Clone Wars. So much has changed…]" Arfive commented in encrypted binary as a few TIE fighters buzzed past a building and over the ship.

"[Imagine how I feel. I haven't seen Coruscant in _thousands_ of years. This is basically foreign territory for me.]" Katy replied in a sad tone as she scanned the horizon through the cockpit. "[…I wonder if the Jedi Temple is still standing?]"

Arfive gave the droid equivalent of an indignant snort. "[Barely. The entire temple was torched at the end of the Clone Wars.]" he replied, continuing to scan the horizon, spotting the Senate building off in the distance.

Lexi pointed at a massive, gaping hole in the city. "There, fly down that portal down there. I'll tell you when we're at 1313." she said, and Nax followed her directions.

Ten minutes later, and they were on Level 1313, having found a docking bay that looked relatively secure, and if Lexi was to be believed, relatively close to the cantina. If the crime here was as bad as Lexi said it was, Nax felt more comfortable leaving it in an out of the way location. As the trio headed out onto the streets with the droids, the very first thing they were greeted with was a blasterfight. Instantly switching into high alert, Nax forced the others back into the alley and poked his head around the corner.

There were three guys wearing a mishmash of ballistic and plastoid gear painted in bright, vibrant colors in specific patterns, clearly gang members. The three of them all had autopistols, two were blasters, one was a slugthrower, and the middle member had some sort of duffle bag on his back. They were all clearly falling back, either trying to get away or get to a better position, but that didn't particularly matter to Nax, as they hadn't noticed the group yet.

The six men pursuing them, however, were an entirely different case. Their gear was much more neatly maintained plastoid body armor, with muted, urban camouflage instead of the bright neon the others had. Their weapons also appeared to be significantly more advanced – high-end Imperial military blaster rifles, looked like E-22s. Their tactics were also extremely well performed and executed, taking precise shots as opposed to fully automatic like the other gang, plus moving as a cohesive unit, almost appearing as if they were Stormtroopers in different gear. Hell, they probably _were_ Stormtroopers.

As the disorganized gang retreated further back, one of them reached for his belt and pulled something off, before tossing it at the advancing men. There was a bright flash that Nax's helmet automatically blocked out, but in the instant it took for that flash to be blocked, the three thugs were gone, and the others were dazed and confused, holding their faces.

It took several seconds for them to recover, but once they did, they frantically looked around, before reorganizing. One of the ones who was closer to Nax than the others, presumably the squad leader, signaled for them to fan out. Three of them nodded and ran down an alley opposite Nax's, while the squad leader took off with the remaining two men further down the street.

Nax quickly looked around to make sure the coast was clear, before he finally headed out onto the street. "Nice first impression." he snarked, looking over the carnage. "You know, as bad as Mos Eisley was, I don't think I've ever seen a firefight between a swoop gang and whatever passed for the law in the streets.

Lexi bumped his shoulder to get his attention. "Those weren't Underworld Police." she said.

"What?"

"Underworld cops have trench coats, plus their gear's made to make the wearer's species unidentifiable. One of those organized guys was a Twi'lek. They're a local gang, and we're in their turf." Lexi elaborated, before taking charge. "C'mon, the cantina's just a few blocks ahead. I think."

Rolling his eyes behind his helmet at that last bit, Nax, Kyra, and the droids finally began to make their way to the cantina. The walk there was extremely uneventful – no more firefights, no attempted muggings, nothing. Just a few borgs looking at them funny, and some more of those well-organized gang members giving them a wide berth, not out of disgust for outsiders, but rather an odd respect that Nax didn't quite understand.

Before long, the area was bathed in cyan and pink light, originating from a sign that read ' _Mare's Leg Cantina_ '. The building itself was very obviously a cantina even without the sign, although it may have been an apartment beforehand. What might have been a large living room at one point had most of the wall that faced the street knocked out and replaced with what was probably reinforced transparisteel, plus durasteel grating covering it. Lexi briefly studied the sign, before nodding to herself. This was the place, then.

As they approached the door to go in, they were stopped by the bouncer, who was another member of the organized gang, probably a Rodian judging by his lisp. "Hold it. See this sign?" he said, pointing at a sign near the door that very clearly banned astromechs from the premises. "Astros need to go."

Nax was about to protest, but Lexi beat him to it. "Eath is a family friend of mine. He doesn't care if I bring droids in or not."

The guard snorted. "Yeah, right. Like I'm supposed to believe that." he replied, already annoyed. "Listen, do you know how many times I've had that 'I know a guy who knows this guy' shit pulled on me?" the Rodian questioned, vaguely pointing his blaster rifle at them. "Seriously, go ah…" he trailed as the door opened, and a male Gran with brownish orange skin in some vaguely old-fashioned clothing stepped outside.

"Setyani! Just what in the blazes are you doing?" the Gran said, visibly frustrated. "Lexi's family are friends of mine, don't just hold her up for no reason!" he ordered, and the Rodian dismissively waved him off, before stepping to the side and waving the group inside. "Come, come. The droids can come, too." the Gran said as he headed back inside the cantina.

The interior, while deserted, was actually fairly well kept, despite being in what was supposed to be Coruscant's biggest slum. The cantina had a relatively similar layout to Chalmun's, with a central bartender island that wrapped around in a U-shape that had a drink mixer behind the counter, with little cove inlets for tables, plus an empty band stage to the right of the island from the entrance. The main difference, though, was that the place looked rustic. Tasteful, but not high class. Sandstone was traded out for wooden paneling, and the durasteel chairs now appeared to be made of… wroshyr wood? Plus, the aged Eopie leather that would've been there in Chalmun's had been replaced with albino sand-panther fur. This Gran, assuming he fully owned the place, had some expensive tastes.

The Gran, whom Nax had by now presumed to be Eath, headed behind the counter and got a couple of glasses out, looking over his shoulder at the group, who were now sitting on the stools surrounding the front counter. "Sorry about the welcoming party, Lexi." Eath apologized as he poured some whiskey for her, before sliding it down the counter to her, which she caught easily, likely from having done this hundreds of times before.

Lexi drank the whole glass in one go, and then set it down. "'s not a problem, Eath. I've had worse."

That earned a chuckle from Eath. "Ha! I'd believe it." he said, his voice getting a bit gravelly, before he leaned over the counter in front of Lexi. "So, what's the reason you've been gone this time? Find a new girlfriend? Maybe a boyfriend this time?"

Straightening herself out and giving Nax a quick glance, Lexi refocused on Eath. "Nah. I went planethopping for a spell. Spent a few years on Taris, jumped to Nar Shaddaa, met a gunsmith who ended up taking me under his wing."

Eath raised an eyebrow as he scanned Kyra, Nax, and the droids. "Oh?" he said. "How'd that go?"

Lexi half-shrugged. "Decent enough, if you ignore the fact that we got attacked by slavers. They killed him and took me as their prize." she explained, and rather dryly at that.

Eath poured her another glass of whiskey. "Really, now?" he responded, more out of morbid curiosity than anything else. "Who were the slavers?"

"Allo Lostur and his crew." Lexi replied, deadpan.

Eath's jaw dropped damn near to the floor. "By Doellin's third tit, Lexi!" he shouted in shock, before immediately looking her over for wounds. "You're not hurt, are you?"

Gently swatting his hands away, Lexi gave flashed him a reassuring smile. "Relax, Eath. I'm fine." she said.

Eath visibly swallowed and stared at Lexi with all three of his eyes. "How did you even get off of that hellship they pass off as a 'vette? Lostur's the meanest, most cruel slaver in the Outer Rim-" he said, before Lexi interjected.

" _Was_ the cruelest slaver in the Outer Rim." she corrected, and Eath went dead silent.

"…What?" he eventually replied, deadpan.

Lexi looked around the empty cantina, before lowering her voice anyways. "Should we talk about this in private? I have a lot of explaining to do, plus my friends here can chime in since they actually did most of the legwork."

Eath's mouth curled in the corners, before he reluctantly gestured for them to follow him to the backrooms. Nax, Kyra, and the droids had all been quiet their entire time inside the bar. Now was as good a time as any to start speaking.

Once fully inside the small office in the backroom of the cantina, Eath sat down, fully intent on listening to every word Lexi, Kyra, and Nax had to say. Even the droids, if need be. Before she actually started explaining, however, Lexi snatched the helmets off of Nax and Kyra without warning, and introduced them, and then she dived right in, starting with her assisting in Kyra's escape, to the manhunt for Kyra, to being forced into trying to seduce Nax to reveal her location, and then Thel bringing her home after the escape. She continued on, mentioning the witness protection with Gaffi, their capture and Thel's torture, the botched rescue attempt from the droids, and then the slave revolt, before capping it off with a retelling of Kyra stabbing Lostur to death.

Kyra and Nax then both gave their own personal account, namely including Vark, working for Lorn, their kidnapping, a sanitized version of how they ended up with the insurgents, and their recapture, at which point Kyra gave her perspective of the slave rebellion.

Eath stared at Lexi, slackjawed and silent. He raised a finger, stammered briefly, and then lowered it, stunned. His fingers fumbled around, before he punched a button under his desk, and a drink appeared from a hidden compartment in the wall, which Eath immediately took a swig of. "You know, Lex, I wouldn't believe this if it were coming from anyone but you." he said, before taking a second swig. "And even then, I still have a hard time believing it."

Eath set the drink on top of his desk, and then looked at Kyra. "Lostur was a menace to my boss's Outer Rim operations, not to mention the countless innocents he's hurt. You have not only my thanks, but my boss's." he said, graciously, before turning back to Lexi. "Now, Lex, I assume you only popped in to say hi before you went planethopping again, right?"

Lexi shook her head. "No, actually. I'm staying with these two cuties." she said, throwing her arms around Kyra and Nax's shoulders and pulling them close, shutting her eyes and smiling while the two of them blushed fiercely, while both Arfive and Katy chirped and whirred comedically. Lexi opened her right eye and looked at Eath. "So, since I'm staying here, and since I doubt these two want to sleep in our ship forever, is my old apartment still empty?"

Nodding, Eath pulled out a datapad to check something. "Yes, Lex. I haven't rented it out to anyone since you left." he replied.

Lexi let go of Kyra and Nax, and stepped closer to Eath. "Does that mean all my stuff is in there?"

Eath nodded again. "Unless someone broke in when you left and I didn't know about it, yes. You remember the address, right?"

Lexi paused to think. "…Corner of twelfth and G, third apartment from the holobooth, right?" she asked, her voice sounding at least a bit unsure.

"Yep, that's the place." Eath said, before he opened a drawer in the desk, jangled something around, and then tossed a passcard to her, which Lexi caught with ease. "Now, if that's all you needed, I'll let you all get to whatever you were gonna do."

Lexi turned to leave, but Nax spoke up before she could. "…Actually, I was hoping you had some jobs for us." he asked. "And maybe if you knew a place I could buy a Threepio droid with everything but the head."

Eath scratched the side of his snout in thought, and then grabbed his datapad again, flicking around. "I myself don't have any jobs for you, and my bounty board's down for maintenance, but I could poke around my superiors to see if they have any jobs you could take." he offered, his middle eye glancing at Nax, while the other two were focused on the datapad.

"That'd be good, yeah." Nax responded, and Eath seemed to start writing notes down onto the datapad.

"Alright, I'll ping Lex's datapad when I have something for you. Now, as for a Threepio without the head…" Eath trailed precariously, tapping his fingers against the datapad's screen. Suddenly, his face lit up. "Ah, I remember a place! There's a droid shop on level 1315 – Broxin Mechanicals. They would be your best bet for finding a headless Threepio unit." Eath said, before pausing. "Word of warning, though – don't mention someone named Barrett to Wilrand. It's a bit of a sore spot." he cautioned.

Nax raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. "Why?" he simply asked.

Shrugging, Eath shook his head cluelessly. "Dunno, that's just word of mouth from my patrons. One guy got punched in the face 'cause of it."

Slowly nodding, Nax reached into his duster and pulled out twenty credits, "Here," he said, before tossing them to Eath, which he caught with ease. "For her drink."

That got a quick laugh from Eath. "Hah! Thanks, but I pay out of pocket for Lexi." he said, before putting the credits into his pocket. "Anyways, I'd love to chat some more, but I need to close up soon."

Lexi nodded in understanding, before dragging Kyra and Nax out. "Thanks again, Eath!" she shouted back into the office. Once they were back in the main cantina, Lexi let go of the two of them, they put their helmets on, and all five headed back towards the freighter.

* * *

Lexi casually strolled down the street, glanced at the holobooth, and then back at the row of apartments, counting each one out. The first apartment she picked was also the closest one, and she grabbed the passcard from her jacket, pressing it against the card scanner near the door.

There was a low tone from the scanner, and then an electronic _beep-beep-beep_ in quick succession, before the door slid open, and all of them headed inside. To their right was the living room, which had a single couch, a caf table in front of it, a loveseat diagonal to the couch, and a flatscreen viscom. There was also a counter between the living room and kitchen, which separated the two. The kitchen also looked fairly average, having most of the stuff Nax had back at the homestead, with a few exceptions. Between the living room and kitchen was a hallway that likely led to the bathroom and bedroom.

Lexi turned on her heel and put her hands on Nax and Kyra's shoulders. "Sit tight for a minute, I need to go check something." she said, before dashing down the hallway. Nax and Kyra exchanged glances, before deciding to poke around the apartment.

Nax took two fingers and brushed them against the end table near the couch, scraping the thick layer of dust off of it. "Sheesh, you'd think he'd have cleaned the place up a bit." Nax commented, shaking his hand and causing a moderately large cloud of dust to appear. Arfive and Katy whirred in agreement as they rolled around the apartment, checking the place out.

Kyra leaned up against the kitchen counter, absentmindedly tracking Arfive. Her arms crossed, she slowly scanned the room, her gaze landing on Nax. "I mean, he probably would've if he had known we were coming to stay. We kinda just… dropped it on him, I guess." she said, giving a halfhearted, humorous shrug.

Nodding his head once, Nax whistled in Katy's general direction. The droid's pan-shaped head swiveled around to look at Nax, and he motioned for her to come over, which she did. Kneeling down, Nax began to examine the droid, brushing off some light dust that had accumulated on her unpainted head. "When we go to the droid shop tomorrow, we'll get you a fresh coat of paint." he said, patting Katy's head. She seemed to like that, and began to chirp and whir in excitement. "…. _After_ we put Zeethree back together." Nax tempered, and Katy seemed to calm down a bit, nodding her head in understanding.

Suddenly, they heard Lexi practically _thundering_ down the hallway, and she appeared next to Kyra, wearing an entirely new set of clothes, namely a short black top that hugged her body tightly and fully exposed her midriff, a long black coat that went over it, and black skintight leggings, plus a holster that went around her waist, with an A-180 safely tucked away inside, spare ammo dangling from the belt. "Well?" Lexi said expectantly. "How do I look?"

Underneath their helmets, Nax and Kyra were both furiously blushing at the sight of Lexi. Scratching the back of his neck through the armorweave, Nax kept forcing himself to both keep eye contact with Lexi, and to avert his gaze. "I… you know, had I known you were going to change, I'd have expected something more… modest." Nax mumbled, at least partially embarrassed.

Lexi snickered. "Man, I'm a Zeltron, modesty's the last thing you should expect from us." she said as she put her hand on her hip, laughing. "Personal fashion sense aside, we've got a problem."

Kyra glanced past Lexi, further down the hallway. "What's the problem?" she asked, her eyes quickly darting back to Lexi.

"We've only got one bed. It's a double bed, thankfully." Lexi replied, coming off rather suggestively. "Sooo, we could all share it—"

"No." Nax immediately replied, shooting that idea down. "We'd all be uncomfortable as hell – someone needs to sleep on the couch."

Lexi crossed her arms and leaned back onto the wall support. "So, how're we drawing str-"

"Not it." Nax and Kyra immediately said in unison.

"Son of a nerf herder!" Lexi swore at not being quicker. "Fine, you're lucky that I like sleeping on the couch more than my actual bed." she relented, albeit reluctantly. "We do need to get this place cleaned up, though."

Heading back into the hallway, Lexi quickly returned with a lot of cleaning supplies. "Get to work, unless you want to be sick with rotgut or something."

* * *

After nearly two hours of work between the five of them, the apartment was effectively spotless, and most of the things on the freighter had been unloaded inside the apartment. Kyra had retired for the night after getting a shower, while Lexi was suns-know-where.

Nax, however, was sitting out on the front steps, underneath the awning that stretched over the door, watching the rain fall, fizzy drink in hand.

It was a very calming experience, despite Nax's prior expectations. He'd never seen rain on Tatooine – the closest he got was a shower, for suns' sake. He'd always overheard stories from spacers that had come from worlds where there were heavy torrential rains, but Coruscant was just… peaceful, for some reason. Obviously, the rain wasn't natural, nothing on this planet was, save for the Manari mountains, but there was a certain quality to the rain that Nax couldn't describe. Maybe that was just because it was his first time seeing rain, though.

He hadn't really had time to sit down and just collect his thoughts lately. They were immediately captured by Lostur's crew when they got to the homestead, he didn't have much time before he got shot, and he had to immediately leave after he got out of the bacta tank. Looking up at some bright neon signs higher on the level, Nax drank from the glass.

Both of the people he had cared most about outside his family were dead.

It didn't really sink in until now just how awful that felt.

Thel was his best suns-damned friend since childhood, they'd been through everything together, along with Trax, and then he just gets offed like a piece of garbage by Lostur. No last words, no final goodbyes, not even a burial that Nax could attend. His best friend ripped from him in one fell swoop, just like that. Nax balled his fist, wishing he had been the one to kill Lostur to avenge Thel, before calming himself.

He'd already been through these motions before with his dad and Trax, but he couldn't help but repeat them. That same feeling of helplessness was there with Thel died, same as when Trax did.

He at least got to say something resembling a goodbye to Val.

Their reunion was far from friendly, but Nax was only now realizing just how much he still cared for her, no matter how much of a façade he tried to put up to hide it. He sniffed once, closed his eyes, and then drank the last of what was in the glass, before setting it down and continuing to watch the rain in silence.

The apartment door slid open behind him. "What're you doing out here in the rain, Nax?" he heard Lexi ask, before she sat down on the steps next to him.

"Thinking." Nax replied, not facing her.

Lexi cocked her head to the side. "Thinking?" she repeated. "Thinking about what?"

"Just… things."

"Something bad?" Lexi pried.

"No, just-"

Lexi rolled her eyes and put her hand on Nax's shoulder. "Nax, I'm a Zeltron, I can sense people's emotions. I know you're upset about something." she interrupted. "So, spill it. What's wrong?"

Hanging his head, Nax sighed. "…I'd rather not."

Crossing her arms, Lexi nudged Nax. "C'moon!" she jokingly whined. "Spill it!"

Stopping her prodding once she noticed Nax's dour expression, Lexi calmed herself and got serious. "…It's about Thel, isn't it?" she said in a much colder, albeit reluctant tone. Nax slowly nodded in response, and Lexi threw her arm around his shoulder to try and comfort him. "Nax, for what it's worth, I'm sorry about Thel. I know you two were close, and I can tell you're hurt about it."

She then reached her hand out from under the awning, letting rain droplets fall onto her skin. "I know how you feel, Nax. More than you can imagine." she said as she turned her hand over, letting the rain pool up in her palm. Nax sat up and looked at her, waiting for her to continue speaking. "Months ago, before I had been captured by Lostur, I had a friend named Relan. Real charmer, everyone loved him. Even dated him a few years ago. He was crazy talented with droids, too. The weaponsmith I'd been apprenticing under at the time, a Twi'lek called Rakkul, had taken me to a space station out in the Julto system near Lothal for a weapons expo." Lexi recalled, slowly getting visibly depressed as she went on, closing her hand. "Relan had shown up, bringing a small army of repurposed CIS droids to try and advertise his business."

"I thought battle droids were illegal to own?" Nax interrupted.

"They are. Thing is, though, is that Relan's droids weren't transmitting themselves as battle droids. He'd reprogrammed them to transmit as security droids, which got around the Senate regulations at the end of the Clone Wars." Lexi explained, glancing at an astromech that was strolling by. "Anyways, we had barely caught up when Lostur hit the station. I was knocked off my feet from the breaching explosion and got knocked out. Kept fading in and out of consciousness, only saw glimpses of the fight that ensued. When I could finally stay awake for more than a few seconds, though, I was in Lostur's cargo hold with the survivors, and Relan was up on the catwalk on his knees, with Lostur right behind him."

Lexi's bangs fell in front of her face. "He gloated for a bit, don't really care about what he said, and then…" she breathed deep. "…and then he executed him." Lexi finished, balling her hand into a fist, before opening it and letting the rainwater fall out. "That broke me more than you can imagine, Nax. It's part of the reason why I helped Kyra escape."

Lexi suddenly shook her head. "…Blast, that took a lot to dredge up. Hurts, too." she said, sounding emotionally exasperated. "What I'm trying to say is that you're not alone, Nax. Even though you've lost your best friend, you've still got Kyra and I. We'll always be here for you, no matter what. And I can sympathize with what you're going through."

Nax reached his hand over his shoulder to touch Lexi's. "…Thanks, Lex."

A small smile cropped up on her face. "Any time, Nax. I needed to get that off my chest anyways." she said, before stretching and yawning. "I'm going back inside, now. Try not to stay out for too long."

Nax nodded once, and returned to watching the rain fall, a bit more at peace with himself after having talked with Lexi.

* * *

The smell of scrambled Eopie eggs wafted all throughout the apartment, penetrating every surface and wall.

Or at least, that's what Arfive's sensors were telling him.

He turned his visual receptor on, and whirred his head around to meet Katy, staring at him curiously. He gurgled a quick "hello there" in binary, extended his middle tread, and strolled off towards the kitchen. His sensors spied Lexi making breakfast, moving her hips and bobbing her head to some heavily synthesized music coming from her datapad.

"… _Let go, take flight, dreams begin to reignite! So clear, so bright, we're glowing in the dead of night!_ " Lexi quietly sang, clearly enjoying herself as her hair lagged behind her head movements. Arfive beeped out a greeting to her, and she jumped a smidge. "Jeez, Arfive! You could've at least let me know you were up!" Lexi hissed out, half annoyed, half amused at the droid's sudden intrusion. "And hello to you, too, Missy." she said to Katy as she strolled in behind Arfive, chirping out her greeting, before turning back to the stove and continuing to make breakfast. "I'd appreciate if you two could keep quiet while I'm making those two their breakfast." she said, before calmly going back to work, humming along to her music.

" _We're made of flesh, circuit, and bone!_ "

" _The only world we've ever known!_ "

…

" _Plug in, online! The datastream links our minds!_ " she continued to sing, her movements getting a bit more intense. She reached for the spat to flip the eggs over, dug under the eggs, and nearly flipped the eggs onto the stove, almost stabbing herself in the process from the excessive amount of force she used. Slightly embarrassed from her mistake, Lexi almost instantly became significantly more reserved with her movements, avoiding getting wild and more emotive.

She silently continued cooking when her music suddenly shut off, replaced by a holocall tone. She glanced over, immediately saw Eath's holonumber, and picked it up. "Hello?" she mumbled into the transmitter.

" _Hello, Lexi. I spoke with my boss earlier, and he was extremely dismissive of you three."_ his voice crackled through the receiver.

"Really?" Lexi asked as she flipped the eggs again. "So, I guess that's a no to us working for you guys?"

" _Not quite."_ Eath said, before clearing his throat. _"I was describing you three to him, and he suddenly took significant interest once I mentioned Kyra and Nax wearing Mandalorian armor. Particularly once I mentioned when they took out Lostur."_ Eath nervously coughed. " _He wants to see you three. Today._ "

"Today?" Lexi repeated, shifting her weight onto her left leg.

" _Yes, today. When can you be down at the cantina?_ " Eath queried.

Lexi clicked her tongue along the roof of her mouth as she minimized the call on the datapad and checked her day plans. "Let's see…" she said, flicking around. "It's almost seven right now. Nax and I were gonna head to that droid shop today to check for an incomplete Threepio unit to get his fixed as soon as he woke up. Why, is it urgent?"

There was a brief pause, and Lexi could swear she heard the parts of a blaster jangling, as if it were being gestured to direct what Eath was saying. " _Very._ "

Shutting the stove off, Lexi shifted which shoulder she was holding the datapad with and sighed. "Alright. I'll bring them both up once we're all ready to go. They should both be up pretty soon here. See you soon!" Lexi said, shutting the call off and setting the datapad aside, her music resuming.

Lexi then began to separate the eggs and put them onto separate plates, one for Kyra, one for Nax, and one for herself, and then stretched as the bedroom door opened, and Nax trudged his way out, partially slouched, evidently having not fully woken up yet. "Morning, mister Mandalorian." Lexi said to him, and he gave a tired wave. "Made you breakfast!" she continued, gesturing to the plates.

"Thanks, Lex." Nax said, his tiredness becoming increasingly evident as he gave a loud yawn. "Heard you talking to someone a bit before I got out of bed. Who was it?" he asked, heading over to grab a plate of eggs.

Lexi sat up against the counter. "It was Eath. Talked to his boss, he didn't sound too interested."

"Really?"

Lexi nodded, and then gave a sly smile. "Yeah, that was until Eath mentioned you and Kyra were wearing Mando gear. That, and how you took out Lostur. He suddenly became _very_ interested, and we need to meet him at the cantina as soon as you and Kyra are ready."

Nax raised an eyebrow as he prepared some caf. "He's interested in us because of our gear and because we took out Lostur?" he asked, and Lexi nodded. "Oh, good. That means he wants enforcers."

"…You're saying that Eath's part of a criminal organization?" Lexi asked, and Nax nodded.

"You said it yourself – 1313 is worse than Tatooine. Why should I take a group that was previously uninterested in us, one that now suddenly wants to talk to us once they find out we have Mandalorian armor, and believe that they _aren't_ a criminal organization, especially on this level?" Nax elaborated as he poured out his caf. "Not to mention, Eath said that Lostur was a threat to his boss's Outer Rim ops, and given Lostur's line of work, I think it's fair to assume they're criminals."

Lexi chuckled a bit. "You know what? Fair point. He probably wants you to be the collector for his protection money. That's honestly not that bad of a job – Mando gear's threatening as hell, should get people to cough up right quick."

Nax shrugged as he drank from his mug. "Maybe, maybe not. Hell, he might just want me to follow him around and look intimidating. Then again, something about working for criminals doesn't sit too well with me. Doubt it does with Kyra, either."

Nodding in understanding, Lexi patted him on the back. "I don't blame you for that one bit, but you should at least hear him out. Hell, knowing Eath, his boss might just be a cantina association looking for guards." she joked quietly, before getting serious. "…How're you feeling?" she asked, looking at Nax sympathetically.

Nax had apparently been staring off into space, and he instantly snapped back to reality. "Huh? I-oh." he stumbled, getting a grip on what she was referring to. "…Yeah, I'm feeling better about Thel."

Lexi flashed him a cheeky smile, shut her eyes, and quickly jolted her head. "Glad to hear it!" she said, sounding more elated. "I don't want you moping over the past when you've got Kyra and I to think about."

"Mhm." Nax mumbled, before he slowly found himself mentally drifting off into space not long after.

Maybe that was a lie. Maybe it wasn't. Nax still hadn't entirely made his mind up.

* * *

When the five of them stood outside the cantina's front entrance, the place was practically bustling with activity compared to last night. Patrons were happily chatting in the window seats, drinking and cheering for whatever they could see – prostitutes, games of Sabacc and Pazaak, illicit blaster deals, snorting lines of spice, whatever the underworld could do, they were almost definitely celebrating it in there.

Nax reached for the door sensor, but it opened before his hand reached the sensor, and Setyani burst through, carrying a heavily drunk Twi'lek male like one would a battering ram, tossing him out on the street. "And stay out, ya damned dirty womp-rat!" Setyani yelled, dusting his hands off, before catching a glimpse of the group. "Oh, it's you three." he said, still annoyed over what happened last night.

"We have names, you know." Lexi snarkily replied.

"Tough kack." Setyani retorted, crossing his arms before gesturing into the cantina. "Eath and the boss are waiting for you in the back."

Nax nodded his head in understanding and was about to head in, when the Twi'lek got up and charged Setyani. Setyani, however, was faster on his feet, redirecting the punch harmlessly into the wall, locking the Twi'lek's arm, and then kneeing him in the gut several times, before tossing him aside like a ragdoll. "Out, damned 'Lek!" Setyani yelled, and the five of them took that as their cue to make themselves scarce, quickly heading into the cantina.

The place was even more packed than it looked from the outside – they could barely move, especially the droids given their limited range of movement, but they made do with what they had. Nax led the group, cutting a small path through the seemingly endless crowd of patrons. Some people took one glance at him and immediately sidestepped him for their own safety, while Nax had to push others out of the way, which was a surprisingly difficult task given how intoxicated a lot of these people were. Eventually, they managed to make their way to the backroom, and the door automatically opened for them. Inside were Eath, and three humanoid figures – a middle aged man that looked like a war veteran with an eyepatch over his left eye and a tan jacket over old military fatigues, a Rodian with his fair share of scars and physical damage, and a Selkath who was missing a significant portion of skin over his mouth, as well as the left lobe that typically hangs from their faces.

The Selkath and the Rodian looked between each other, not sure what to make of what they were seeing, while the human crossed his arms and huffed. "Took you long enough to show your face, Strag." he said in a gruff, overly serious voice, approaching Nax. "Gotta hand it to you, you've got a lot of guts showing up around here after what you pulled."

Nax opened his mouth to speak, but the man suddenly pulled him in to the most bone crushing hug Nax had ever felt, even through the thick armor plating. The man then let go, but firmly kept his hands on Nax's shoulders, smiling ear to ear. "Cobro, how've you been, you crazy sonuvabitch?!" he said, before glancing at Kyra. "And you, too, Bo." he said in a slightly more flirtatious voice. "It's been twenty years since I last saw the both of you!"

Cobro? Bo?

Confused, Nax finally spoke up. "…I think you're confusing us with my parents." he said, and the man immediately cocked his head, surprised at the voice that came out from behind the helmet. "I'm Nax."

" _I knew that armor looked familiar._ " Eath quietly mumbled.

He glanced at Kyra, then to Nax, then back to Kyra, before finally settling on Nax. "Your _parents_?" he repeated, and Nax took his helmet off to illustrate his point. The man immediately set to studying Nax's facial features. "Strong jawline, permascowl…" he mumbled. "…Definitely Cobro's features, but you have Bo's mouth and nose…" he continued, before pausing in his stride. "Holy spucks, kid. I expected them to have a kid, but the least Cobro could've done was tell me!" the man joked, grinning like an idiot, much to the displeasure of the Selkath and the Rodian.

His attention suddenly fell to Kyra. "So, if you're not Bo, then who…" he rambled as Kyra took her helmet off. "…Damn! I guess I can add good taste in women to the list of things you got from him!" he said, impressed. Kyra instinctively hid her face behind her bangs, embarrassed, causing the man's attention to focus on Nax again.

Nax's expression didn't change in the slightest. "…Not to be rude, but who are you?" he asked, and the man immediately smacked his forehead.

"Ach, of course he wouldn't mention me!" the man said, frustrated, shaking his head with a barely visible frown. He then made eye contact with Nax and cleared his throat. "I'm Vopa Meidre, formerly retired smuggler and former bounty hunter." Vopa said, reaching his hand out to Nax's, shaking it. "I worked with your father, oh, I dunno, a year before the Clone Wars?"

Lexi loudly cleared her throat and coughed, stopping the discussion in its tracks. As if he had been snapped out of a trance, Vopa immediately got back on topic. "Right, we can talk about your family later. As I was going to say before I saw you in Cobro's armor – I represent an organization interested in people like you, and I come to you with an offer of employment, and a job ready to go should you accept my offer."

"This organization wouldn't happen to be Black Sun, would it?" Lexi interrupted, and both the Selkath and Rodian hissed a negative to her, causing Lexi to recoil.

Vopa, however, was far more accommodating. "No, not Black Sun. I work for the Coru-Hivers. You've already seen our soldiers out and about, no doubt. Setyani, for example, is one of our men. That being said, we don't deal with more… morally repulsive acts like the Black Sun. We're more oriented around getting people goods the Empire doesn't want them to have. Starfighters, certain kinds of blasters, battle droids and the like. Slavery is one of the biggest things we shun."

Nax nodded, following along. "All right, so if you're smugglers, then why do you need someone with Mandalorian armor?" he asked, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.

Vopa faked offense. "Smuggler is such a strong word. We prefer being referred to as 'the friendly neighborhood black market dealers.'" he said in a tone that sounded more like a Public-Relations representative telling a barely contained lie, than an actual person speaking. "Back on topic, though - we occasionally make use of 'messengers' that we send to those who wrong us. Sometimes the name is literal, sometimes it's not."

Nax raised his head up and glanced at the Selkath and Rodian. Both were pretty well equipped, probably messengers. "I've heard the term thrown around a lot in the context of the Hutts back on Tatooine. What's it mean?" Nax continued, as Kyra cautiously stood closer to him, very wary of the situation at hand.

"Like I said, sometimes it's literal. Other times, it's not. They send messages, whether it's me demanding someone back off before I force them into an incinerator, or a pile of dead bodies."

Kyra finally spoke up. "So… they're hitmen?" she tentatively asked, and Vopa bobbed his head, thinking of an answer.

"They're more in line with bounty hunters, actually. Same idea, though." he answered.

Nax was about to speak, but Lexi put her arm in front of him, putting the attention on herself. "Alright, so what's the pay?" she asked in a more professional tone than Nax had been speaking in.

Vopa stroked his chin in thought. "Messengers have a good bit more leeway in our organization. The pay's not consistent, but jobs are open for any of them to take and they get paid however much when that's done. I've seen jobs get posted for as low as two thousand, to as high as a hunded thousand."

Nax, Kyra, and Lexi all whistled, impressed. If Vopa didn't have their attention before, he sure as hell did now.

Letting out a quiet sigh, Nax approached Vopa. "Alright, I'll bite. What's this job you have?" he asked, and Vopa reached into his jacket, pulled out a datapad, and grabbed a datacard, inserting it. He then set it on Eath's desk, who had disappeared further back into the offices. The room lit up with a blue light, and a large hologram of what appeared to be a large warehouse with a moderately sized courtyard in the front appeared.

"What you're looking at is the main hub for the Synthflesh Union on level 1300." Vopa said, putting his hands on the desk.

"The Synthflesh Union?" Nax repeated.

"Old cyborg rights group from before the Clone Wars. Got hijacked a few years ago by a Hutt, if I'm not mistaken. Most of the people actually trying to help cyborgs got bumped off, and the Hutt turned whatever was left into a decent sized gang. They were a pretty big powerhouse down here until they caught the attention of Black Sun." Vopa explained, snickering to himself. "Those were hard times for pretty much everyone here, the whole Underworld was a damned warzone for two years. Towards the end of that, one of the Vigos came down and finally cleaned house – killed the Hutt and most of the lieutenants. The gang splintered after that, never really recovered. I stopped keeping count of how many offshoots there are now, but they all seem to use the warehouse to hang out when they're not slinging stims, shooting up, or borging themselves further."

The Rodian rolled his head in annoyance, approached Vopa, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Enough with the damn history lesson, Vopa. Give them the job details, or we're done here." he said in a hoarse voice, clearly tired of having done this same routine over and over.

Vopa quickly nodded. "Right, my bad. As I was saying – this is their main hub. Yesterday, we had a very important package get stolen from us by a bunch of Synthies, and I have reason to believe it's being held in that warehouse."

Lexi put her hand on her hip, interested, but hungry for more details. "How important of a package are we talking?" she asked.

"Forty thousand credits important. Failing that, important enough that if I don't get it to my client, my head'll roll." Vopa explained, before returning to the job. "Now, the Union, they're not centralized like they used to be. It's just a bunch of fractured gangs pissing on each other and stabbing each other in the back calling itself the same name it was ten years ago. We have good relations with most of the gangs, but a few hate our guts, so it was either them, or rogue agents from the other gangs. Either way, we need that package."

The Selkath finally chimed in. "I think you're forgetting a few key details there, _boss_." he said with a heavy dropping of sarcasm. "Like what the package looks like, and how they're supposed to get it out."

"I was getting to that, _smartass_." Vopa retorted, before switching the hologram to one of a small, distinctly military plastoid box. The box itself was a dark grey urban camouflage, and on top of the box was a white circle sitting in what looked vaguely like an animal's jaw sitting vertical, clearly an emblem. "This is the package. It's probably being kept in a storeroom. Not sure where that would be, but my best guess would be to follow the trail of used hypos. As for how you're going to get in and get the package out; get creative."

"…Get creative?" Kyra questioned, hoping he wasn't just throwing them to the rakk-hounds.

"Yeah, get creative. Maybe feed the door guards a line of bantha poodoo about how you're from Jabba or something and he wants to talk to the people in charge to make a deal. Sneak in through a vent, maybe?" Vopa suggested, hoping one of them would stick. "Hell, you could probably shoot the whole place up as long as you got the package out. Then again, I'd prefer if you didn't go loud."

Lexi, Kyra, and the droids had nothing further to add, so they all looked at Nax for his opinion. "…What's the pay?" he asked.

"Quarter of the sale price, so ten thou once the client follows through."

Scratching his beard, Nax glanced at Lexi. "How you feel about this, Lex?"

She smiled and shrugged. "Whatever's good with you is good with me, Nax."

Nax turned his attention to Kyra. "What about you?"

Kyra remained silent, visibly considering what to do. "…As long as we're not dealing in slaves, I'm fine with it." she finally answered.

Vopa nodded in approval. "It's settled, then. Welcome aboard, Nax." he said, pleased with himself.

* * *

The three of them were perched up on an apartment block roof next to the warehouse. Nax and Kyra were both looking down into the yard through their helmet macrobinocs, while Lexi was looking with a pair of handheld binos. The warehouse differed slightly from the hologram. Namely, part of the roof closest to the apartment had collapsed in on itself due to lack of maintenance, leaving a potential entry point.

For the moment, however, they were looking into the yard, which was filled with a considerable amount of tents. "…What's with all the tents?" Kyra questioned, zooming in on one of the larger tents in the center of the yard.

"Hell if I know." Nax replied, scoping out some of the smaller tents. "Looks like some sort of open-air market to me."

The yard appeared to be effectively empty from what Nax was seeing, although there may have been someone hidden from view, and Nax's suspicions were soon proven correct when someone wearing the same vibrant neon colors from yesterday walked out from one of the larger tents and yawned, before taking out a pistol and twirling it around, admiring it.

"You guys see any other way in?" Lexi questioned, scanning the actual building itself, looking for an open window, or maybe a basement entrance, before putting the binos down.

"Nope." Kyra immediately replied, giving the building a quick once-over, and then doing it again to make sure she hadn't missed anything. "Nothing. Looks like our only options are either the collapsed part of the roof, or the front entrance."

Huffing, Nax stood up and looked down into the exposed section of the roof, flipping down the rangefinder to get an idea of how far it was.

The roof wasn't too terribly far away, but the main issue was the drop. He could probably jump it with little issue provided he stuck the landing, but there was always the off-chance that he could end up impaling himself…

That train of thought immediately stopped and lead into another. He had actual gear now, no reason not to use it. Switching to the night-vision mode on the viewplate, Nax peered down into the seemingly eternal abyss, and spotted mostly intact flooring. It didn't appear to be structurally weak, or otherwise rusted, and there definitely wasn't anything to injure himself with. Turning to Lexi, he quickly made sure she had the commlink in her ear. "That thing tuned to our comm frequencies?" Nax asked.

Lexi pressed down on the button and both Nax and Kyra heard a crackle in their comm systems, and then a series of what sounded like tapping on plastoid being recorded from inside a device. "Good." Nax said, before turning to Kyra. "We're going in through the roof."

Leaning over the edge, Kyra anxiously peered into the hole in the roof. "You sure?" she asked.

"Positive. Just repeat what I do." Nax said, before unholstering his Deecee, handing it off to Lexi. "Hold on to this for now." he ordered, before getting to the opposite end of the roof, mentally preparing himself, before running forward, jumping off the roof and into the warehouse. There was a brief moment where Nax immediately regretted his decision, before he landed with a heavy thud, rolling forward into a prone position. "Hope no one heard that." he muttered under his breath, before glancing up and behind him, pressing the commlink. "I'm fine. Your turn, Kyra."

Kyra didn't respond, but Nax saw her peering over the edge, visibly anxious, even through the armor. She made several motions indicating her hesitation, and Nax pressed down again. "I'll catch you, Kyra."

That appeared to visibly calm her, and she disappeared from view. Several seconds later, the commlink crackled again. " _Get ready._ " he heard Kyra say, and Nax reached his arms out. Almost immediately, Kyra appeared over the edge, having already jumped, and she was currently in freefall. As soon as she was close enough, Nax wrapped his arms around her waist as fast as he could, pulled her closer, and spun around to dispel her momentum, stumbling backward a bit.

Once Nax caught himself, he immediately let Kyra down. "You okay?" he asked, giving her a quick once over.

Kyra quickly ran her hands over her legs, body, and back, before checking her arms. "Yeah, seems like I'm good, Nax." Kyra answered. "Thought you weren't gonna catch me for a sec, Nax." she quietly said, elbowing her partner.

Scoffing, Nax looked further into the attic, which was what this seemed to be rather than an entirely separate floor. "Like I'd let my partner die." he remarked, before pressing the commlink again. "Lexi!" he hissed. "Keep an eye on the yard. Anyone new shows up, you let us know as soon as you can." he ordered.

" _Gotcha, Nax._ " Lexi's voice cracked through the comms.

Refocusing his attention on how to actually get into the warehouse, Nax poked around the attic. He didn't have to look very far, however. Under a small stack of crates, there was a ventilation grate poking out from underneath. Quietly running over, Nax moved the crates off the grate to fully reveal just how big it was. The grate looked large enough to comfortably fit the both of them, but that didn't speak for the actual vents themselves. It definitely went through the whole warehouse, though.

The corners of the grate were held in by four small bolts, the kind you could twist to untighten. "Get those ones, and I'll get these." Nax ordered to Kyra as he set to work untightening the bolts. The bolts quickly untightened, and the two of them removed all four bolts at the same time. Nax then removed the grate and poked his head in. "Looks like the vents are big enough for us to fit."

Getting down on her knees, Kyra peered into the vent. "Is this really the only way in?"

"Would you rather go through the front door?"

"…You know what, on second thought, this isn't so bad." Kyra corrected herself, and Nax crawled in head-first, with Kyra going in immediately after him.

The commlink buzzed again. " _Heads up, you've got some Stormtroopers heading into the warehouse. Five of them, plus an officer."_

Stormtroopers? What the hell?

"Gotcha, Lex." Nax replied cautiously.

"What're Stormtroopers doing here?" Kyra questioned, keeping pace just behind Nax.

"Suns know. Maybe talking to an informant for the Underworld Police?" he proposed, pressing forward in the tight space.

Kyra couldn't shake the feeling that _something_ was wrong.

* * *

They crawled through the vents for what felt like hours at the pace they were going, but was in reality only about twenty odd minutes.

"Stop." Nax hissed, suddenly stopping all movement, and Kyra quietly complied. Directly below them was a room that Nax could see into through a vent. The room was totally bare, save for a single mattress, bereft of any sheets, pillows, or blankets. On that mattress was a young blonde woman, scantily clad in a tunic, laying on her side, silently whimpering to herself. She then rolled over to stare up at the ceiling, green eyes full of tears. It reminded Nax so much of Kyra when they first met, it was almost unsettling seeing it for the second time.

She just stared right into space, and then she squinted at the vent Nax was looking at her from. She scrunched her face up, raising her head to get a closer look, and then her eyes went wide.

A massive grin appeared on her face, and it was then that Nax realized he had been discovered. He put a finger roughly to where his mouth was on the faceplate to signal for her to keep quiet, and she nodded in understanding.

Crawling back from the vent a tad, Nax fingered the edges, trying to find a release of some sort. He did manage to find one, but before he could open the vent, the door to the room swung wide open, and in walked the Stormtroopers. On the shoulderpads was a single emblem, one of two circles inside each other, one small, one large. The inner circle had struts jutting out in an X-shape, while the outer circle had a cross of 'supports', along with dark blue quarter circles in the four quadrants. A very strange emblem, considering that Nax had never seen stormtroopers with personalized armor before, so he began to silently record what was about to happen through his helmet.

"This is the girl?" one of the ones carrying an E-11 asked, leaning from side to side, looking over the girl, sounding fairly young as he spoke.

"No shit it's the girl, dumbass!" another barked, whacking him on the back of the head with the butt of his rifle.

The first stormtrooper spun around, about to hit his comrade in the face, and then the officer butted in. "Can it you two, before I throw your asses on latrine duty." he ordered, before looking at the woman. "She seems to be in good shape. Looks well fed. She got any diseases?" the officer asked, turning to someone out of view.

"Nah, she's clean." a heavily accented voice said, out of view.

"Good. Our boss'll pay you as per usual once we deliver her." the officer said, before turning to the younger trooper. "Oh-Eight, get that shock-collar on her and let's get outta here." he commanded, his vocoder cracking a bit.

It was now very clear to Nax that these troopers weren't here for an informant, but rather to enslave the girl. Tightening his grip on whatever he could in the vent, Nax silently cursed to himself.

The trooper reached into his assault pack and produced a shock collar, and cautiously approached the woman, who was now backing away, struck with the same fear that Nax had seen in Kyra weeks ago. When she could back up no further, the woman looked up into the vents, silently praying that Nax would save her.

Feeling a tap on his leg, Nax heard the commlink buzz in his ear. " _What the hell are you doing?_ " Kyra hissed at him, upset that he was letting someone be enslaved after everything he went through for her.

" _Waiting for them to turn their backs. Unless you'd rather get shot?_ " Nax whispered, gently nudging Kyra's hand away from his foot.

Right as Nax finished talking, they started to move out of view. There was a brief pause where Nax did nothing, and then he slide the vent open, dropping out and hitting the durasteel floor at full speed, shotgun at the ready. The troopers barely had time to turn around when Nax pumped a slug into one trooper, racked the pump, and then dropped a second trooper.

Kyra didn't drop out of the vent like Nax did, but she was hanging out, shooting at the troopers. One blaster shot landed square in the officer's faceplate, penetrating it with ease and killing him. The other troopers panicked, turned to face each other, and then shot each other.

Nax had to do a double take to re-check what he just saw, and sure enough, the two stormtroopers had just shot each other and killed themselves with friendly fire. More pressing, however, was the commlink screaming in his ear. " _What the hell is happening down there?! I just heard gunfire!_ " Lexi yelled.

"Change of plans." Nax responded as Kyra dropped down from the vent. "We've got a little rescue mission, too. Get the bikes prepped and ready to go." he ordered as the woman slowly got up from the ground.

" _Are you for- wha-…_ _ **Seriously**_ _?_ " Lexi complained over the comms, before sighing. " _Fine, you've got ten minutes before I'm bolting and leaving you there._ "

More than enough time.

"Gotcha." Nax said as he kneeled down to look at the shock collar. He'd seen them before on a bunch of unfortunate slaves in Mos Eisley, but he never knew how they actually worked. "Shit, I can't get this collar off without probably blowing it. Kyra, you know how these things work?" he asked, turning his head behind him.

Kyra knelt down and grabbed the collar, much to the displeasure of the woman. "I do, sort of, but I can't break the collar. She'll need to be taken to a slicer when we're done here."

Right, the job.

Reloading the shotgun, Nax glanced at the woman. "You know where their storage room is?" he asked, and to Nax's surprised, she nodded, taking point despite being unarmed. She led them at a rapid pace down the corridors, and all around them they could hear thundering footsteps and yelling and shouting. After around a minute of sprinting, the woman disappeared behind an L-corner, and Nax prepped the shotgun just in case.

That turned out to be unnecessary, however, as at the end of the hallway was a large durasteel vault door, with the woman standing proudly in front of it.

The problem was that it was a vault door, and none of them had any experience slicing keypads. Or cracking vaults, for that matter.

Nax approached the keypad, fingers tentatively outstretched. He randomly mashed keys a few times, which obviously didn't work. Retracting his hand and debating whether he could half-ass a slicing attempt, his thought process was interrupted by a shot blasting the keypad. Quickly turning around, Kyra sheepishly looked at him. "What?" she asked. "I've seen it work in holovids."

About to chew her out, Nax was kept quiet by the vault door slowly swinging open, and the three of them darted inside. On a central table was the case they had come for, but surrounding it was a treasure trove of gear. Droid parts, armors, blasters, ammunition, even obscure stimulants, you name it, it was there.

Pushing his greed to the back of his mind, Nax popped the top of the case open. Inside was a single datacard, small enough to fit into a datapad. Snatching it and tossing it into his duster pocket, Nax resisted the urge to grab a souvenir and drew his scattergun again. "This way!" he shouted, waving them further down the hall.

* * *

Nax handed the datacard over to Vopa, who put it between his fingers, slowly examining it for damage. Satisfied, he smiled. "…Ah, Deja. I've been missing you." he mumbled, before pocketing the card. "Payment'll arrive whenever the Hutt coughs up." he said, nodding in approval. "Damn fine work, even if you did go loud."

Throwing his arm over Kyra's shoulder, Nax pulled her close. "Hey, she'd have killed me if I didn't save that girl." he half-joked, earning a chuckle from both Vopa and Kyra. "Speaking of, how's she doing?"

Vopa's expression turned more neutral. "Shook up pretty bad. Gave her some food and water, had a slicer break the shock collar. She's not speaking, but she's talking to us through sign, says her name's Vehn Madruun."

Nax nodded his head as he took this information in. "…Say, do you have anyone who can identify an Imperial emblem? The stormtroopers that tried to take her had one on their shoulders. Got it on video, if it helps."

"Yes, transmit it to my datapad and I'll send it to my contacts." Vopa said as he pulled his datapad, offering it to Nax. Taking it, Nax turned it on and began to transmit the video to the device.

* * *

Alpha-Zero scanned the council room with his biotic eye. Seven of the eight seats in the room were occupied by fellow council members, while the normal occupant of the eighth chair was below them, facing the judgement of the council.

In order from Zero's left were Alpha-One, a cyborg with heavy scarring and significant augmentations, who ran most of the smuggling operations in the Union.

Next was Alpha-Two, one of the Union's diplomats and negotiators from the pre-Hutt era. She had short brown hair and wore a simple robe, but had no visible cybernetics, for all of hers were more concealed. CASIE augs, biotic eyes, increased lung capacity, even muscle density and reaction speed augs.

To her left was Alpha-Three, who was by far the most enhanced of the council members. He wore an elegant red robe with gold trim and a hood. There wasn't even a shred of visible skin – every inch of his body was metal and machine, clearly befitting an aug of his station and charge.

After Three was Alpha-Four, Five, and Six, triplets who had changed positions and appearances so often that Zero couldn't even keep track of who was who anymore. As for the empty seat, that belonged to…

"Alpha-Seven." Zero commanded in binary, and the nerve-wracked Seven stood up straight. "Would you like to explain why there are currently six dead Stormtroopers in our neutral zone?" he asked, sweeping his arm dramatically over the cyborg.

" _Heretek! He's a heretek!_ " Alpha-Three hissed and screeched through his vocoder. "He brings the un-Ascended into our holy grounds! And now blood has been _spilled_! _Their unclean blood has dirtied our place of worship!_ " he continued to rant.

Zero put a hand up to silence Three. "Thank you for your input, Three. However, this is not a religious matter. This is strictly a… practical one." Zero said, hovering on the last few words. Three raised his hand to speak, but Zero immediately shot that down. "No, I will not have Seven shot for being a heretek, and no, I will not permit you to do it yourself. Under the Black Sun Contingency Treaty, section two, line 21-B, all signatories have revoked their right to settle disagreements with bloodshed. Now, silence." Zero said, transmitting a line of code to Three's augs that would render him unable to speak. "Speak, Seven." Zero commanded.

"W-well, sir, one of my lieutenants was carrying out a trade…" Seven treaded cautiously.

"What _kind_ of trade?" Zero demanded calmly.

"The, ah… _human_ kind of trade, for someone in a position of power." he continued, not failing to mince words.

"Who?" Alpha-Two asked, her voice sounding like it was lined by a choir of angels.

Seven shook his head. "I'm afraid I can't divulge that."

Rolling his eyes, Zero gave Seven a piercing glare. "Fine, continue."

Seven cleared his throat and locked eye contact with Zero as best he could. "Well, just after the stormtroopers took the girl we were selling, two Mandalorians dropped from the vent and started shooting. My lieutenant bolted as soon as he saw the first one, and after that, I don't know what happened aside from the troopers dying." Seven said, shrugging out of lack of knowledge.

Zero stepped back and reached under his podium, pulling out a large case. "Then what is this?" he asked, setting it on the podium. "This was found _empty_ inside of our _open_ vault. Care to explain?"

Seven's jaw dropped. "That… belonged to the Coru-Hivers."

And just like that, everything suddenly made sense to Zero. "You do realize that if they declare war on us for stealing something of theirs, it's your ass, right?" one of the triplets said condescendingly, while the other two made noises of approval.

"They are correct." Zero added. "If they want war, we're throwing you straight to them in a bid for peace. I have no desire for war with the Hivers."

All of the other council members agreed with that sentiment. "In addition," Alpha-Two noted. "I would like to put forward a motion that the neutral ground no longer be used to conduct business for any of us." she said clearly and concisely. "This incident is far too likely to bring the Empire down on top of us, even if we aren't unified anymore. Avoiding a repeat is ideal."

"Agreed." Alpha-Zero said. "All in favor?"

Every single council member raised their hands.

"Then it's settled." Zero said, before returning his focus to Seven. "Consider this your warning, Seven. Control your men, or you will face our wrath. I will _not_ tolerate having the others brought down by your incompetence." he said sternly, the synthesizers in his voice becoming more prominent.

"Y-yes, sir." Seven replied.

* * *

Idly staring out the window at the rainfall, Kyra drank from her glass, bored. Her head slipping further and further into her hand, she grabbed some earbuds, pulled out her datapad, and was about to throw some music Lexi had suggested on.

The chair diagonal to the couch was in Kyra's peripheral vision when she blinked, and in the half-second that it took to blink, Lostur appeared in it, laid back with a smug grin on his face. "Miss me?" he taunted.

In an instant, Kyra's heart rate shot up, and with a speed only an optimized assassin droid could achieve, Kyra had her blaster out and trained directly on Lostur's forehead. "You're supposed to be dead!" she shouted, horrified that he could have somehow survived.

With a snap of his fingers, Lostur's shirt disappeared, and every single stab wound Kyra had inflicted on him was still there, still fresh, and still bleeding. "Who said anything about me being alive?"

"…Have I lost my mind?" Kyra asked herself, keeping the blaster trained on Lostur's forehead, hand shaking.

Shrugging, a case of death sticks materialized in front of Lostur, and he grabbed it, taking one out and lighting it with nothing. "I dunno, you tell me." he said as he took a drag. "Want one?"

"Not a chance."

"Suit yourself." Lostur replied as he took another drag.

Scrunching her face in frustration, Kyra lowered her blaster a little. "Why are you even here?"

Lostur huffed, bemused. "I'm a part of your slowly deteriorating mental state, here to torture you for the rest of your mortal life. Boo." he snarked, and Kyra only grew more frustrated.

"Very funny."

"Thanks."

The two of them sat in silence together. "Is there actually a reason you're talking to me right now?" Kyra asked. "I don't care what you have to say, so you might as well get lost back to whatever hellscape you came from."

The death stick case disappeared, as did the one in Lostur's mouth. "Would you hear me out if I said I had something you might want to hear?"

Kyra slowly lowered her blaster pistol further. "…I just said no, but to hell with it, I'll humor you. Go on." she said, waiting for what the apparition had to say.

Lostur stood up and shifted positions to the window, hanging over the thin coaster that ran along the length of the window seal. "When I-" he said, before pausing. "When the _real_ me said you were important, he wasn't lying. You genuinely are worth quite a lot to the right people. Who those people are, though, I can't remember."

Kyra raised her eyebrow in confusion. "Aren't you Lostur? Can't you remember who they are?"

'Lostur' looked at her like she was an idiot. "Did you miss the part where I said ' _the real me_ '? I'm not _the_ Allo Lostur. I'm an apparition of him that's using your memories of what Lostur was like, what you heard from Lexi, and your personal views on him."

Appearing even more confused, Kyra squinted at the Weequay. "So, you're saying that… you're _me_?" she asked, sounding more ridiculous as she went on.

"In a way, yes."

"…What?" Kyra asked.

'Lostur' back out the window. "Think of it this way, I'm not the real Lostur. I'm a manifestation of your psyche. The _old_ you, from before the real Lostur took you as his slave. I'm on the same page as you are, unfortunately, so I can't help us re-discover who we are." 'Lostur' explained, before blinking a few times. "Does this make any sense?"

Looking around, Kyra hesitantly nodded. "…I… think…?" she said slowly and meticulously.

"Good. And one more thing-" Lostur said, before disappearing.

 _Prepare for horrors beyond the scope of human understanding._

With that, Kyra's eyes darted open, this time in bed next to Nax. He was facing her, happily asleep, but Kyra opted to just watch him. In his sleep, Nax scratched his face, before letting it fall next to Kyra.

She had no reason to believe any of what the apparition had told her, not one shred, yet somehow it made enough sense to her. As Kyra huddled her body closer to Nax, she grabbed his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, before drifting off back to bed.

* * *

 **THAT'S THAT CHAPTER HOLY FUCK**

 **LONG ASS MOTHERFUCKER**

 **Fuckin'** _ **ANYWAYS**_ **, as compensation for having to wait this long; here's a gallery of Pulsar Company girls that I have made in Koikatsu, plus an unfinished Nax: imgur.c.o.m (slash) a (slash) EZlxg75**

 **Do note that none of the girls are to scale since Koikatsu scales really goddamn weirdly in terms of height. As for why Nax is unfinished but the girls are done (mostly), making a manly-man in Koikatsu is harder than it sounds, mainly because it's designed around making femboys and shit and less actual men.**

 **Maybe I'll go bug the /tg/ drawthreads to get some actual drawings of the girls done, yeah?**

 **If you need a good visual description of what Alpha-Three looks like, just look up pictures of Techpriests from 40k.**

 **As for the Synthskin Union guys, most of them kinda look like the guys on the covers of Scandroid albums.**

' **Till next time!**

 **-Tweak**


	11. Of Droid Traders and Augmented Prayers

**I've been playing a lot of Starsector lately (thanks sseth) and I don't think I've been sucked into a game like that since I first started playing Civ 5 seriously. Seriously, it's so much goddamn fun. It's like space Mount & Blade mixed with the Spore space stage.**

 **On a different note, did you guys know that Coca Cola is fucking canon in Star Wars now? No, I'm not fucking joking, I'm dead serious. It's at Galaxy's Edge and the bottles look like little thermal detonators. I don't like the idea of there being fucking Coke ads in Star Wars. I'm fine with there being a Coke analogue or something, but not straight up fucking Coca Cola. Get it away from this decaying corpse of a franchise.**

 **Anyways, I finally got off my ass and finished Val's look; here she is:** imgur.c.o.m (slash) a (slash) KUzxuA3 **, and in case you missed it at the end of the last chapter, here's the other girls:** imgur.c.o.m (slash) a (slash) EZlxg75

 **I've done some significant overhauls to the Nax card, made his waist thinner since Rance apparently has one of the widest goddamn waists for an anime character (technically an eroge but that's neither here nor there) and I also made the head bigger. I'm thinking of scrapping the stubble though. There's just no way I can get it to look good in Koikatsu, no matter what I do to it.**

 **The man needs to shave, goddamnit!**

 **Anyways, enough of my rambling, read and review this chapter.**

* * *

There was a slight bump against Lexi's hand. At first, she ignored it, and then it happened again, so she pushed whatever it was away. That resulted in a very heavy thud against the floor, and a series of angry electronic warbling and gurgling, causing Lexi's eyes to shoot wide open to find that she had just pushed Arfive over in her sleep. "…The hell'd you expect?" Lexi tiredly asked, and Arfive gurgled a series of angry responses nonsensically accusing her of doing the same thing. "…Touché, you beeping trashcan."

Sitting up, Lexi yawned rather loudly, and then glanced at the wall chrono. "Ngah, what time is…" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. She shifted her foot a little and bumped into something metal, diverting her attention from the chrono to the object. It was a deactivated Threepio head.

Initially confused, Lexi realized who it belonged to, and what it was doing there. "Ah, hell. We were supposed to get the Threepio body yesterday, weren't we?" Lexi remarked as she picked the head up and rubbed the photoreceptors, having already answered her own question. Arfive beeped out an affirmative as he righted himself. Glancing back at the chrono, Lexi's mental fog had cleared enough to where she could probably see well enough to check the time.

Just a quarter past eight in the morning.

"Damnit, that's pretty late." Lexi complained as she got up and stretched, almost pulling her top off in the process. "I'll just grab something from the 'con and let those two make whatever they want when they get up..." she continued to mumble as Arfive trailed after her like a loyal pet.

Evidently having noticed his trailing, Lexi turned to him. "What, you coming with?" she asked, Threepio head tucked under her arm, and Arfive chirped out an annoyed yes. "Fine by me." Lexi said as she turned the digital notepad attached to the conservator on. Grabbing the pen from its holder, she scribbled down a quick note.

' _Gone to the droid shop, took Arfive with me. Make something to eat yourself.'_

Setting the pen back where it belonged, Lexi grabbed a protein bar from the conservator and immediately made for the door, Arfive trailing her.

* * *

The exterior of Broxin Mechanicals wasn't really what Lexi was expecting. What she imagined it being was just a shop on the side of the street with a sign over top, maybe with a door guard or something.

 _What she got_ , however, was a small fortress. A duracrete wall spanned both ends of the street, with doors the size of the sidewalks on both ends for pedestrians to walk through. In addition, barbed wire spanned the whole length of the wall, and if that wasn't enough, there were battle droids guarding the doors.

Not regular B1s, not some obscure model, but rather _fully stocked B2 Super Battle Droids_. Lexi had forgotten just how _tall_ a B2 actually was, and these units looked even taller than normal.

" _ **ZELTRON FEMALE.**_ " the Super closest to her declared in its deep, monotone voice. " _ **IDENTIFY YOUR PURPOSE IMMEDIATELY.**_ "

Caught off guard by the sudden request from a six foot tall killing machine, Lexi jolted a smidge, before catching herself. She didn't know just how trigger-happy these droids were programmed, and the _last_ thing she wanted was to get wasted by a bunch of Supers. "…I'm here to trade." Lexi calmly said, and the Super stood up straight as it processed this information.

" _ **UNDERSTOOD, ANALYZING SPEECH PATTERNS.**_ " the Super said, before making electronic whirring sounds, staring Lexi and Arfive down with its red photoreceptor. There was a short pause, and then the photoreceptor turned blue. " _ **YOU ARE CLEAR TO PROCEED.**_ " it bellowed, and the pair of them quickly went through before the Super changed its mind.

The entrance to the actual shop was certainly unique. It was the front portion of an MTT cut out and put into the building, with stairs leading up to the hatch, plus an Astromech access ramp. Lexi and Arfive both went up and into the building with little trouble, and the first thing they were greeted with was a highly synthesized male voice yelling.

"Are you shitting me?" the voice yelled from behind a pile of droid parts. " _Another_ shipment?" he queried, exasperated at whatever he was being informed of. Slowly walking further into the dimly lit store, Lexi saw who the voice belonged to.

A man of average height, clad in tattered red robes with gold trimming with cybernetics and augmentations covering his body, barely leaving any room for skin, was hunched over the counter, a single light fixture dangling from the ceiling lighting his features up. Half of his face was covered with metallic plating, but he wasn't paying attention to Lexi, at least for the moment, so she took the time to poke through the piles of droid parts.

Obviously, there were the common droids you would see in basically every droid shop around the galaxy. R2 and R4 units, a few R5s, Threepio droids, some CZs, and then some that you wouldn't normally see, like B1s in storage mode, rolled up Droidekas, at least one rusted B2, the head of a Dwarf Spider Droid, half the legs of a Crab Droid, and then some oddities, like the head and right arm of an IG-86, and a strange rust-colored droid head with what looked like a large grille around the nose area.

Rubbing the photoreceptors of the droid head, Lexi set it back on top of the droid body she had found it on. "Look, I don't care what you do. Hire more guards, arm them better, whatever, just _don't lose the next shipment._ I'm cutting a thin enough profit margin as it is. I can't afford to keep sourcing droids and then losing them to this asshole because he intercepts the shipment without fail." he advised, before finishing his call. "By the Maker, I must have the worst luck when it comes to employees…" he mumbled under his breath as Lexi made herself known. "Oh, a customer!" he said, suddenly perking up. "I'm Wilrand Broxin, owner and proprietor." he said in a much more jovial voice than beforehand. "…I'm going to assume you heard my conversation?" he asked, lowering his voice to be much quieter. It almost sounded like he was… afraid? Lexi couldn't particularly tell on account of all the static and synthetic sounds in his voice, but it sure sounded like it.

Lexi nodded once, and Wilrand gave out a static filled sigh. "Yeah, I was afraid of that." he moped. "Look, business isn't doing too great, I won't lie. Doesn't mean I don't have stock to sell." Wilrand said, before his eye shifted from a light blue to an unnatural green. "Just that things could be better."

Nodding once, Lexi leaned over the counter. "…I heard something about shipments getting intercepted?"

A small data screen appeared in Wilrand's eye. "Yeah, shipments of droid salvage from the lower levels keep getting intercepted by the Transhuman Ascendancy, specifically one of their droid engineers. A Duros by the name of Baal Sti. Crafty little bastard, that one."

Arfive chirped out a question asking about the Ascendancy, his head rotating around the shop curiously. "The Transhuman Ascendancy are a splinter group of the old Synthskin Union from a few years back. Buncha whackjob cultists that view cybernetics and augmentations as the next step for sentients everywhere." Wilrand said, before pointing to himself. "I should know – I was one of them."

"How'd you get out?"

Wilrand held his hand out, and a blue hologram of a skull with cybernetic attachments around the left eye socket with three orbiting spheres appeared. "I didn't. I'm marked for death for being 'heretek'. Hence, the Supers and the wall. Good deterrence against those borged shitters coming for me." Wilrand explained as the hologram flickered out. "Now, why're you asking? You a hired gun?"

Lexi gave Wilrand a sly, knowing look. "I may know a couple. Depends on the pay."

"Five thousand credits for the job plus whatever you can take home from his place."

"I'll run it by 'em."

Wilrand put one arm on the counter, and the other by his back. "Fine by me. If they don't take it, we never spoke about the subject." he said in a cautionary tone of voice, particularly eyeing Arfive. "That goes double for the Astro."

Lexi nodded, and then Wilrand stood up straight. "Good, now that that's out of the way, what can I get for you?" he said, the synthesizers in his voice changing to make him sound more like a holoshow host.

"Do you have any headless Threepio units?" Lexi asked.

"I think I do. Let me go check in back." Wilrand said, before disappearing behind another mountain of droid parts.

Ten minutes later, Lexi left carrying a box with the disassembled arms, legs, and body of a Threepio droid.

* * *

Lexi pushed the box against the door and grabbed her passcard, swiping it against the reader. There was a short _beep-beep-beep_ , and then the door slid open, causing Lexi to accidentally stumble forward from the sudden lack of support. As soon as Lexi regained her footing, she immediately set the box of parts on the floor, turning to be greeted by Kyra's feet hanging over the side of the couch, and Nax looking at her. "Took you long enough to get back." Nax quipped, causing Kyra to sit up.

"Hey, Lex. Whatcha got in that box?" Kyra asked, and Lexi nudged the box with her foot.

"Threepio droid parts for Zeethree."

Nax practically sprang to attention, fully turned around in his seat and staring at the box. "No shit?" he said, before getting up and checking the box. Opening it, Nax pulled out a matte gold leg. "…Wrong color, but I don't really care. We can get it rechromed down the line." he said, looking down the leg socket. "Wiring looks intact, too. Hope that Wilrand guy isn't running a scam."

"I doubt it." Lexi replied, glancing at the viscom. "Anything come in from Eath or Vopa?"

Nax shook his head no. "No new jobs, didn't get an update on that thing we took from the Synthies, and haven't heard squat about that girl."

Reaching into her coat, Lexi pulled out her datapad. "Well, in that case, I got a job from that droid shop owner, Wilrand." she said as she showed the datapad's information to Nax and Kyra. "A competitor keeps intercepting his shipments of salvage from the lower levels. Only reason this guy is still in business is because he's with the Transhuman Ascendancy."

"Who?" Nax and Kyra asked in unison.

"One of the Synthskin Union offshoots that Vopa mentioned. Major transhumanists and religious nutjobs. They think cybernetics are the only way for people to 'transcend', whatever the hell that means." Lexi explained.

"They sure sound like a fun bunch." Kyra joked, finally sitting up properly.

Lexi huffed and crossed her arms. "Yeah, well, if your definition of 'fun' is shooting at cyborgs and augs that need B2s to protect yourself from, then I think you're a little crazy." she snarked, and Kyra's eyes narrowed.

"They can't possibly be…" Kyra said, trailing as Lexi showed her a picture of some Transhuman goons. All of them were significantly enhanced, and scarcely resembled human beings. "…You know what? I take it back. Those guys do _not_ look like people I want to upset." she said, her voice lightly trembling, before she nervously laughed.

"…They don't even look like people. What the hell?" Nax said, his expression a mixture of intrigue, shock, and disgust.

Lexi nodded sympathetically, and set her datapad back in her coat. "Anyways, this guy's set up nearly halfway across the planet, in the Bu'lal district-" Lexi continued, before Kyra interrupted her.

"How's he intercepting the shipments if he's set up halfway across Coruscant?" she asked, and Nax glanced at her.

"He's supported by a fragment of a gang that was large enough to cause a multi-year long shitstorm in the Underworld, Kyra. Even if they're not as powerful as they were a few years ago, a fragment of them still have considerable reach. Not to mention, they're a religious organization, so add that in, and they've probably got a significant amount of soft influence from followers." Nax noted and explained.

"Soft influence?" Kyra repeated.

"People that aren't strictly involved with the organization, but still follow their teachings or whatever. People involved in an organization are what I consider 'hard influence' since they're doing most of the actual legwork, while bystanders that support them are 'soft influence'." Nax said, resting his arms over the couch. "Picked the term up from some spacers after some Rodian tried running a religious scam back in Mos Eisley before Valarian shut him down."

Lexi stretched briefly, before sitting on the couch with Kyra and Nax. "…Anyways, the job's about five grand-"

"With that kind of risk? Hell no!" Nax immediately interjected, and Lexi shot him an annoyed look.

"I wasn't done. The job is five thousand credits, _plus_ whatever we can salvage from the guy's base. I don't know how much he has, but Wilrand'll probably pay a pretty chit if we can haul everything out." Lexi finished, sounding a tad miffed that Nax interrupted her before she was done talking.

"…I'll have to think on that, then." Nax consigned, sitting back into the couch, and Kyra nodded in agreement.

Kyra locked eyes with Lexi and proceeded to gently nudge Nax. "I'm with him on this one. Facing just a few of those borgs and augs does _not_ sound like how I want to spend my day, and that's not even talking about the possibility of guard droids." she said. "I either want to do this stealthily, or not at all."

Lexi shrugged as she slid the datapad back into her coat. "Sure, whatever's fine with you. Salvage'll probably pay damn well if we can get the freighter in there, or if he's got a cargo speeder, but it's up to you guys." she said, before stretching. "So, what were you two doing before I got home?" Lexi asked, tossing her arm around Nax's shoulder.

"Channel hopping without much to do. Speaking of, check it-" Nax said, turning the viscom's volume up so that the news report was audible.

" _-Six Stormtroopers were killed yesterday in a brutal incident of gang violence."_ the female holocaster said, her voice clinical and clear, and her face unfazed. _"The troopers reportedly attempted to peacefully break up a physical confrontation between two groups of gang members, but were gunned down. This is yet another in a string of brutal attacks on Imperial officials in the lower levels of Imperial Center."_

The three of them leaned in closer to the viscom, and an image of six covered Stormtrooper bodies was shown, with the Synthskin Union warehouse just so happening to be in the shot.

" _The suspects are currently unknown, but are suspected to be a rival gang at odds with the remnants of the Synthskin Union. If you, or anyone you know has information regarding these suspects, report it to your local Underworld Police barracks immediately."_ the holocaster advised, before clearing her throat. _"This was Fay Tultra from INN, signing off."_

"Looks like we made the news." Nax quipped, before standing up and heading to the box of Threepio parts.

Kyra stared at him, slackjawed. "…Have you as much as _entertained_ the idea that the Empire could come after us for this?" she asked, horrified that their deed had become public knowledge.

Lexi nodded once. "I'm gonna have to agree with Kyra on this one, Nax. I'd rather not get thrown in prison for murder and have some thug take me by force, just because you've got an itchy trigger finger." Lexi said, before her pupils seemed to shrink in realization of what she just said, and she blushed.

Nax grabbed the Threepio torso and examined it. "I didn't think of it at the time." he replied, flipping the torso over to look at the back.

"Shocker." Kyra snarked, and Nax turned his head to look at her from the corner of his eye.

" _But."_ Nax sharply said. "I have thought on it now, and I don't think it's ever gonna come back to us."

"And why's that?"

"Think about it logically – you have Stormtroopers, presumably someone's personal guards since I've _never_ seen a detailed emblem on the ones in Mos Eisley, going into a known gang hideout to buy a slave and even associating with the slavers openly. Imagine the scandal if that got out."

Kyra's mouth briefly hung open as she considered Nax's words.

"The story about it being an incident of gang violence is almost definitely a cover story run by the slavers and whoever those Stormtroopers were working for, and besides that, the description is probably as vague as 'two Mandalorians' and MAYBE a Zeltron. Do you have _any_ idea how many Mandalorians and Zeltrons are on Coruscant right now? Because let me tell you, it's not a small figure in the _slightest_."

Lexi combed through her blue hair with her fingers. "…And if they know what we look like?" she poised, seeming ever annoyed at Nax's cockiness.

"The ship's not too far away. We can always bolt if they ever come knocking. Bug out to the Rim again."

Lexi buried her face in her hands. "…Nax, you're an idiot." she said, only half serious.

Nax rolled his eyes at the comment. "Guess I'll have to prove that I'm not, then." he said as he flipped the torso to look inside. "Gonna need to fix Zeethree."

"Oh, really now?" Lexi teased. "What, you think I'm gonna fall head over heels for you when you do?" she said, getting a cheeky grin while Kyra, Arfive, and Katy all watched the exchange in silence.

Nax silently snorted through his nose, smirking. "That's the idea, yeah." he quipped, knowing full well where this would lead. "Unless you'd rather help me rebuild him?"

Lexi blinked at what Nax just said. "I…" she stammered, staring through Nax. "…You're on!" Lexi said, vaulting over the couch to get at the box of parts, grabbing the whole thing and marching into the kitchen, unpacking it.

And so began the long, arduous, and painful process of rebuilding Zeethree from scratch, something Nax wouldn't have been able to do alone, with a very flustered, embarrassed, and droid-savvy Lexi helping him.

* * *

"Looks like that's it." Nax said, looking over the assembled, although headless Threepio unit. "Now all we need is the head." he continued, grabbing the head off the counter and positioning it over the neck, spine extended and ready to connect to the head. Slowly lowering it down onto the latch, Nax made sure not to bump the droid or any of the delicate wiring, and successfully connected the head to the rest of the body.

Gently nudging Nax to the side, Lexi stood up on her toes and carefully began to re-attach the wires, working within the confines of her memory of how the Threepio head connected to the body. There weren't too many wires she had to memorize, but there were enough that if Lexi didn't pay attention, she would easily lose track of herself and possibly damage Zeethree.

Lexi connected Zeethree's brain to the 'spine', with the audio and photoreceptors quickly following suit, albeit with some strain trying to connect them. The motor joints were next, and after a quick scan, Lexi realized she was done, and fell flat on her feet again. Nax silently understood what this meant, and latched Zeethree's head on fully, before reaching into the torso and turning him on.

Zeethree's photoreceptors flashed bright yellow several times, before stabilizing. "H- _h_ - **he** _ **ll**_ o?" Zeethree said, looking around at his surroundings quizzically. "…I feel different, somehow. Strange. What has happened to me?" he said, staring out the kitchen window as Nax made his presence known.

"Zeethree, can you hear me?" Nax called out, waving his hand in front of Zeethree's photoreceptors.

The protocol droid immediately shot to look at him. "Master Strag!" Zeethree prissed, waving his arms comically. "It's so good to see you!" he continued raving, sounding overjoyed.

The smallest hint of a smile appeared on Nax's face. "You too, Zeethree. We got you put back together, so you should be all good now. No more being a useless head for you, huh?"

Zeethree blinked, and his upper torso tilted back a bit. "'We'?" he queried, and Lexi made her presence known.

"Yo, tin-man." she greeted casually with a halfhearted wave. "I'm the one that fixed you up. Mostly."

Zeethree leaned closer to Lexi. "My apologies," Zeethree said politely. "…but I do not recognize you. Are you a friend of Miss Kyra's?"

Lexi closed her eyes and nodded. "Mhm. I'm Lexi Sapphyra – the reason this mouthbreather has a roof over his head." she joked, pointing at Nax, who gave her a dirty look. "We're on Coruscant, Level 1313."

"Imperial Center, you mean." Zeethree politely corrected, and Lexi snorted.

"Hell no I don't mean Imperial Center. Nobody calls it Imperial Center except for the Empire. Everyone I've ever talked to calls it Coruscant. That's what it's been for thousands of years, and that's what it'll stay as, Imperial renaming be damned." she said proudly, chest held high.

"I see." Zeethree said, before turning to Nax. "Master Strag, where is Miss Kyra?"

"Went to bed an hour ago."

Zeethree nodded. "I understand, Master Strag."

Just then, Katy and Arfive rolled into the kitchen. "Ah, Arfive!" Zeethree bellowed. "It's so very good to see you again – and from my intended height, too!" he said cheerfully, and Arfive chirped back. "…Have you put on weight, Arfive? You look a bit more… portly than I seem to remember."

Arfive began to angrily chirp, scree, and whirr at that comment. "How rude!" Zeethree said, shocked at the profanity being spewed from the droid. Zeethree then switched his gaze to Katy, who was curiously staring up at him. "…Do my photoreceptors deceive me, or is that a T3-series utility droid?" he asked, and Katy chirped a positive back to him. "How very strange to see one of your kind! I had assumed that most of you had been deactivated or destroyed." Zeethree commented.

Nax nudged Zeethree a bit. "By the way, that T3 unit was Thel's. She's called Katy, and Arfive got her fixed a few days ago."

Zeethree stared at Katy, studying her. "Ah, yes, I do remember something about Thel having a T3 unit. Speaking of – where is he, Nax? You two are usually inseparable, I would have expected him to have come with you to Coruscant." Zeethree innocently asked, and then it hit Nax that he hadn't told Zeethree. All signs of happiness and glee vanished from Nax's face, replaced with a deadened stare. "…Master Strag?" Zeethree asked.

Taking a long, slow breath, Nax stared through Zeethree. "…Thel was…" he choked, clearing his throat. "Shot. By Kyra's slavers. He's… he's gone." Nax stammered.

Zeethree's voice toned down significantly. "Oh, my…" he said, shocked. "Master Strag, I'm _so_ terribly sorry, I had no idea, I didn't mean to-" Zeethree prattled, worried that he may have offended his master.

"No, no. It's fine, Zeethree. I just…" Nax said, exasperated, before walking away. "…Just need to get a shower, is all." he mumbled under his breath, clearly lying.

Zeethree was tempted to follow and apologize profusely, but held back. Lexi quickly came into focus. "…Let's make sure you're all well and good. Don't want you shorting out all of a sudden." she said, tapping his photoreceptors a few times.

"…Yes." Zeethree said, staring blankly into the empty hallway. "Yes, that would be good."

* * *

Kyra was in bed, reading a holobook by the window, letting artificial moonlight fall on her with the bedside lamp on when Nax came into the room, looking exasperated, tired, and dead, all at the same time.

Wordlessly, he got into bed with Kyra, who's eyes appeared to shimmer in the false moonlight. Closing the holobook and setting it on the window seal, she turned over to Nax. "…Is something wrong?" she asked sweetly and softly, resting her head against the pillow.

Nax didn't answer her question, choosing instead to keep staring at the wall. He didn't even bat a glance at Arfive when the astromech quietly entered the room. "…Nax…" Kyra said in that same tone of voice. "If something's wrong, I'd like to know. I _am_ your partner, after all." she said softly, stroking the side of his face.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Nax turned his head slightly so that he could look at Kyra from the corner of his vision. "I'd rather not say, Kyra."

As if she had been expecting that question, Kyra gave him a swift roll of her eyes, before shutting the light off and getting closer to Nax, pulling him into a hug. "Well, just know that whenever you _do_ want to tell me, I'm here for you." Kyra said, trying to comfort Nax.

By the time the words left her mouth, Nax had fallen asleep, his hand on her arm as a sign of acknowledgement. Kyra soon followed.

* * *

Nax found himself staring up at the night sky, but something just… wasn't right. The stars were all wrong – there was no airspeeder traffic, no skyscrapers. Nothing man-made. Nax felt a strong gust of wind at his back, and turned to see that he wasn't on Coruscant.

He was back on Tatooine, at the homestead. Involuntarily, Nax stepped forward, and in one swift instant, the homestead caught fire, and he stopped to watch his old home burn.

Was this… happening right now? Had squatters accidentally burned the place down?

His question was answered when he suddenly moved much closer to the fire, feeling something wet on his hands. He looked at them, and saw them covered in fresh blood. As soon as his brain registered that fact, he was ripped again even closer to the fire, near the graves, which weren't there, strangely.

In a half of a heartbeat, Nax was faced with the decomposed corpses of both Trax, and his dad. In shock and disgust, Nax tried to step away, to turn away, to do whatever he could to get the bodies out of his sight, but he just couldn't. Some unseen force, more powerful than he, was forcing him to stare at the bodies.

" _Your fault."_ a deeper version of Nax's voice said to him, with a metallic reverb and lingering presence to it.

The corpses skulked closer to Nax, coming further into the light of Tatooine's moons. _"They're dead, and it's your fault."_ the voice said to him, sounding closer now. Nax thought the corpses would move closer after that, but instead he found himself at the Insurgent base in the box canyon, now partially buried under the dunes of Tatooine. Feeling a rush of wind at his back, Nax was moved to the open grave of Val, her body still in there, although it wasn't decomposed like dad's and Trax's were. She was still the way he saw her last, and still in the same position. Legs straight, arms over her stomach, rifle by her side.

" _How pathetic you must be. You couldn't even protect the love of your life."_ the voice taunted, sounding even more close than before. _"She's dead because you took too long, you know. You could have saved her. But you didn't."_ it continued, giving off a malicious laugh. Nax glanced up from the grave and quickly spotted the dim, shadowy apparition of himself sitting down, one foot hanging over Val's body, grinning at him, showing fangs. _"How about her friends, her family? You couldn't save them either."_ the figured said, its mouth not even moving an inch, and Nax was quickly assaulted by mental images of each and every Dewback member and insurgent that he had seen at the base.

When the barrage was done, the scene shifted again, this time to the cargo hold of the _Bantha_. In the cells were cloaked, shadowy figures, but in the one nearest to the stairs on the left, there was another mirror image of himself, as well as Kyra, Thel, and Lexi, all behind bars, with Lostur and his goons standing right outside, blasters at the ready. _"Ah, my favorite."_ the voice said, nowhere to be seen, before there was an audible snap of his fingers, and the scene replayed itself.

"…N-no… no, no, no, no, no…" Nax mumbled in repetition as he watched the scene play out exactly how he remembered it.

" _I remember him telling me a story about how he ran some slimeball slaver cowards off a frontier world."_ the apparition of Nax cockily said, blissfully unaware of the consequences of his words.

"Don't say it!" the real Nax shouted, to no avail.

" _That wouldn't happen to have been you, would it?"_ it finished, still not aware of what was to happen.

"No!"

Nax saw Lostur's apparition reach for his S-5. _"Close, but worded very poorly."_ he said, remaining calm, cool, and collected, before drawing the blaster and shooting Thel in the head. Everyone stopped still as soon as the shot rang out, and the malicious shade appeared in front of Nax, baring fangs.

" _ **You**_ _got your best friend killed."_ the shade taunted, giving off an almost Cheshire grin. _"You can't even keep your mouth shut to save your friends. Some hero you are."_ it continued, before putting its hand on its hip. _"You disgust me."_

Nax balled his fist up in anger and took a swipe at the shade, who simply ignored the punch, letting Nax's fist go through. _"How typical."_ the apparition said, before disappearing. _"You can't understand something, so you try to kill it to make it go away."_

"Go to hell!" Nax yelled, before falling to his knees in shame.

There was a short, tense pause as the apparition drew breath. _"…I'm already there, and you're living in it."_

With that, the voice disappeared, leaving Nax alone, his vision slowly faded to black.

* * *

Nax glanced outside the window of the magtrain, Kyra and Lexi at his side, both of them holding on to the poles in the crowded space, sticking as close to him as they could. It still boggled Nax's mind just how foreign Coruscant was to Tatooine. At the speed they were going, Nax had only ever seen sand dunes and hills roll by that fast, never skyscrapers that reached into an artificial ceiling of duracrete, or airspeeder traffic flowing right alongside the train and keeping pace.

His thoughts were interrupted by a bump in his left side. Shifting his gaze, Lexi was looking up at him, fingers over he commlink. _"Remind me why we're taking the train instead of just flying to the district in our ship?"_ she asked, barely audible over the chatter in the car, even through the commlink.

Pressing down, Nax stared at her through the viewplate. "'Cause the Empire won't let a ship through to a district under lockdown, and even if they did, a YT-1300 nobody's ever seen before showing up would seem a bit suspicious, wouldn't it?" he answered, scanning the crowd with the helmet's scanner. Didn't seem like anybody had bounties out on them. "The Velen Quarter is about as reasonably close as we can get, anyways."

" _Besides that, we're not going there to start a fight. We're just gonna scope the district out."_ Kyra chimed in, patting Arfive on the head as he happily chirped over the comms. _"Speaking of, you got a plan for how to get in? From what I could tell, the place is all walled up."_

"Get in through a vent or some kind of service tunnel. Shouldn't be too hard." Nax said as the train slowed to a halt, and the doors opened to the Velen Quarter. The four of them were the first to get out, and they immediately sidestepped the crowd. Directly ahead of them was a T-junction in the street, with the Bu'lal district just a few blocks down the street. Or it would be, if there wasn't a massive wall reaching all the way up to the next level, with massive neon banners over it stating "QUARANTINED DISTRICT, KEEP OUT", alongside the standard Imperial flair of throwing their damn banners over everything.

Near the large pressure-sealed door were seven hulking figures, barely illuminated by the neon above them, but they had to easily be nine feet tall. Front door definitely wouldn't cut it. Whistling over the commlink, Nax directed everyone to follow him down the street on the right, further away from the entrance and hopefully into a back alley. "Lexi, you're a native – what were those things guarding the entrance?" he asked, brushing past a Rodian.

Lexi toyed with her hair as she glanced back at the street the figures were on. "Dunno." she said, clearly unsure of what she saw. "I've heard stories about how the Empire patrols anything below level 300 with Hazard Troopers, and those things patrolling looked awfully similar. Maybe they've walled the place off and covered it up as a biohazard?" she proposed, poking her head over the railing, and immediately getting vertigo.

"Maybe." Kyra replied, checking and charging her '44. "All I know is that I don't want to cause problems for them. Or the cyborgs we'll probably find in the district."

The group continued to walk in silence, heading about five blocks down from the magtrain station, before walking down a street on the left that led straight to the wall. They then turned into an alleyway marred with an obviously lack of maintenance or even basic sanitation. Heading further into the alley, Nax spotted a dimly lit grate that appeared to have steam coming out from underneath it. Stepping over and turning his night vision on, he peered in, and it quickly registered that the drop would be one-way, but not impossible. "Arfive." Nax quickly and suddenly said, his tone almost deadpan, before gesturing to the grate. "Your fusion cutter, if you'd be so kind."

Arfive chirped, leisurely strolling over to the grate. He leaned over the first latch, one of the panels on his torso flinging open, and a manipulator arm extended, fusion cutter already primed and at work. The three of them simply stood around, waiting for Arfive to finish, and after a short wait, he had the hole open and ready for them to drop in. First was Kyra, then Lexi, then Arfive comically falling face-first into the hole. Nax edged his way in carefully, making sure to re-place the grate where it had been before. Hopefully anyone who came by wouldn't look too hard at it, and then he dropped, hitting the duracrete floor with an audible thud as Arfive turned his light on, flashing it over the tunnel.

"Let's get going." Nax said, pressing forward through the service tunnels in the general direction of the district.

* * *

Ash Voot walked the streets of the Ka'ath district in silence, her barely meter tall height making her effectively invisible in the crowd of pedestrians. Slowly, she felt a twitch in her hand. Raising her arm up to the nearest light source – a neon shop sign, she remembered something the cyberneticist told her.

" _You're probably gonna be experiencing phantom pains for the next few months. Sorry, but there's nothing I can do about that."_

As if she could see right through the fake skin, the image of a metallic, skeletal hand projected itself through her viewscreen, the feeling of the hand that she used to have and the one she had now mixing together to create a confusing, mind numbing pain. Her hand felt like it was both still attached, and that it had just been cut off.

She exhaled slowly, sticking both hands in her pockets and looking up to see a young man looking at her from the door to what looked like a cantina. The scanlines on her viewplate must have went off as soon as she looked at the man, and he quickly fled back inside. She thought of entering the cantina to maybe find some help with what she was looking for, although decided against it, walking past the windows, hearing drinks clinking, the cantina band playing, and cheers all around as the warm lights inside shone down on her.

She walked for another five or so blocks, when a lightly synthesized voice gradually became audible to her. "Come, augs and cyborgs! Join the Transhuman Ascendancy! Throw the shackles of society off your arms and legs, for you have nothing to lose!" the man said. As Ash got closer, the owner of the voice gradually became identifiable. He was of average height, wearing a long, blue robe with silver trim that reached down to his shoes. In his arms was a small stack of datapads, probably handouts for his organization.

Ash slowly approached him, unseen, before tugging at his robe. "Excuse me." she said in a joyless, monotone voice heavily impacted by speech synthesizer glitches.

The man turned to face Ash, smiling warmly at her. She had to admit, he was attractive. Clean shave, strong facial features, blue eyes you could get lost in. Except there was a small 'spine' of augmentations running along the side of his cheek. "Ah, a fellow cyborg." the man said, his synthesizer shifting to a more friendly tone. "Have you come to join the Ascendancy?"

Ash crossed her arms and leaned on her leg. "I was already planning on it." she replied, her tone unchanging. "I just need directions to the Church of the Maker."

The man nodded in understanding. "I see. Normally I would give you a datapad to look over, but it seems you've already made up your mind." he said, before handing her a datapad. "The directions are on these datapads anyways. May the Maker's will guide your path." the man said, bowing his head, before returning to his duties.

Ash quickly found the location of the Church, and began to head there at her own pace. After all, it wasn't like she was in a rush to get there.

* * *

After an almost twenty minute walk, Ash was greeted by a grandiose building that eclipsed her memories. The Church didn't match the surrounding buildings. They were dull and grey, while the Church was warm, decorated with ornate gold and silver trimming. Red banners adorned the street and front of the church, bearing the symbol of the Transhuman Ascendancy. There were also four guards carrying light blaster rifles that, aesthetically, appeared to be bullpup weapons. They were adorned in the same general kind of robe as the street preacher, but their robes were a dark grey with silver trimming, and their faces were concealed by combat masks similar to Ash's.

She slowly approached them, and the first one on her left held his hand out. "Hold there, stranger." he said, and Ash stopped moving. "What brings you to our sacred grounds?" he asked, seeming genuine, his voice lacking the synthesizer that Ash and the preacher had.

"Redemption." Ash replied flatly, her synthesizer heavily glitching.

"Many people have said the same, so I must ask; what can you offer us?"

"My skills. Send the following phrase up your chain of command;" Ash said, before clearing her throat. "'The Starbird that burns may never die, and it will burn thrice as bright, until its watch is ended.'" she said, reciting it from memory.

The guard looked at her like she was insane, before deciding there was no harm in humoring her. He pressed down on his ear, opened comms with his superiors, and repeated the phrase. There was a long pause, not only from the commlink, but also from the guard, before he finally stepped aside. "There'll be someone waiting for you inside, ma'am." he said in a far more respectful tone.

Without exchanging another word, Ash headed into the church.

The interior had certainly changed since she had last been here. The walls had been completely re-done with beautiful gold paneling, with red carpet leading further down the hall and up another flight of stairs. The ceiling had been apparently raised, and now large tubes and wires dangled from the ceiling, pulsating with a blue energy that was beyond Ash's knowledge. In addition, the walls had artistic interpretations of the Ascendancy's beliefs done in with stained glass – visual depictions of digital transcendence, cybernetics, and mechanical augmentation littered the halls, and as if to make the religious fervor ever more apparent, she could hear faint chanting coming from what felt like everywhere, yet it was all distant, regardless of its actual source.

After a short moment to herself, Ash heard footsteps, and turned to see two tall men in pure red robes carrying vibrostaves with axe heads over their shoulders. They stopped several paces from Ash, silently motioning for her to follow. On edge, she obliged them, and they led her further back into the church, taking a right at the end of the entryway to lead into a tight hallway decorated with red carpeting. At the end of said hallway was a chromium lift treated with gold, which the three of them entered. The one on Ash's left started the lift.

The two men continued to stare stoically ahead, unmoving and infallible in their duties. For all Ash knew, these might not even be men. These could be Magnaguards, now that she thought about it.

Before she could actually ask, though, the lift came to a stop, and the three of them moved into a large, grandiose throne room of sorts. There was another carpet that led up another small set of stairs to an elevated platform. On top of the 'throne' as it were, clad in crimson robes with bright gold trim, was a man who had augmentations and cybernetics practically growing out of his body, seemingly connected to the throne.

"Leave us, Vanguards." his heavily synthesized, albeit familiar voice commanded with supreme authority. The 'Vanguards' bowed their heads respectfully, and returned to the lift, leaving the room.

There was a short, awkward pause as the man waited for the guards to presumably be fully unable to hear them. When he was sure they were gone, his head, or at least, what Ash assumed was his head, was now focused on her. "Voto." he said, and Ash winced at the name. "Why have you returned to me?"

Ash kneeled in front of the man. "…I seek your guidance once again, Grand Ascendant." she said, her tone low and quiet.

"…You seek guidance?" the Grand Ascendant scoffed. "After you abandoned us, _our mission_ , to chase delusions of grandeur with rebellion?" he continued, before standing up from the throne, wires and tubes detaching from his body and falling to the floor, slowly approaching her.

Ash refused to stare up at him, her old instincts of submission and obedience finally kicking in after years of being dormant. "You openly defied me and abandoned our order, yet here you are, wanting to be let back into our ranks." the Grand Ascendant continued, staring down at Ash. "Tell me, Voto; why should I grant you the privilege of returning to us?"

Ash swallowed, steeling herself. "…I thought the rebels I joined gave me a purpose. Something to fight for." she said, lowering her head even further. "…They were all killed in an Imperial raid like you said would happen. I was the only survivor." she continued, staring at the floor. "My spirit was broken by that, and I lost all will to fight the Empire."

Ash couldn't tell what the Grand Ascendant was thinking. "And were you surprised by this?" the Grand Ascendant questioned.

Hesitating briefly, Ash exhaled. "…No." she said flatly.

Briefly making sounds of consideration for her response, the Grand Ascendant's feet shuffled slightly. "…Back to my original question; why have you returned to me?"

Exhaling sharply, Ash continued to stare down at the Grand Ascendant's feet. "…After the raid and my… enhancements, I mulled over what led me to that point..." Ash said, her tone muted. "I came to realize that my arrogance had blinded me from the path you had laid out for me. My cybernetics made me realize that now, more than ever, I needed the Ascendancy. I've come to beg for your mercy, and for a chance at redemption for my transgressions."

The Grand Ascendant was silent, and Ash, unmoving. After a short period, the Grand Ascendant spoke. "You may rise, Voto." he commanded.

Ash did as was told of her, slowly rising to her feet, staring the Grand Ascendant in the face, or at least, what was left of it.

"You were one of my most trusted agents, but your transgressions cannot easily be forgiven. I can, however, put you on the path to redemption, if you truly do desire to rejoin us." the Grand Ascendant advised.

Ash remained quiet, before swallowing again, staring directly at him. "I am your blade in the dark. Body and mind, I am yours to command, Grand Ascendant." Ash recited.

The Grand Ascendant nodded once. "You remember your oath well." he said, before taking a more relaxed position. "There is a Duros in the Bu'lal district by the name of Baal Sti. He is one of our informants, but as of late, he's become something of a loose end to the Ascendancy."

"And loose ends need to be tied up." Ash finished for him.

"Correct. Prove your loyalty to me by eliminating him. Permanently."

Ash bowed her head. "…Yes, Grand Ascendant." she said obediently.

"…One more thing." the Grand Ascendant said suddenly. "In all official communications that are not in person, refer to me as Alpha-Three." he said, and Ash nodded once in understanding. "Now, go." he said, pointing back towards the lift.

* * *

 **That's that chapter done.**

 **I'm gonna temporarily put this story on pause while I finish out the last chapter of Grimm Retreat, which is basically whatever I had of chapter 13, plus a highlight reel of what would have been sorta 'key' moments for the story. I've been thinking about doing this for a while now and have done some work on it, but I wanna get it done soon-ish which means pausing Pulsar Company.**

 **Best guess for the next chapter? Late September, but then again I fucking run off of goddamn Valve Time so it's anyone's guess.**

 **Write your reviews and criticize my shit thanks**

' **Till next time.**

 **-Tweak**


	12. Breaking, Entering, and Breaking Again

**I return from the grave, fuckers.**

 **I finished writing out the fuckhuge final chapter for Grimm Retreat, so now I can fully focus on Pulsar Company. I've made some more changes to Nax's KK card – his head is even larger so that Lexi's and Kyra's heads don't fucking dwarf his, and he has some new facial detailing, namely the scar under his right eye. I also added a chest scar where he got shot. Also, I found out that Nax's clothes aren't men's clothes, they're fucking women's. For some reason, Illusion decided "hey, lets just not make men as customizable as women lol" because of course. I know Koikatsu is a game about creating virtual waifus that you can bang, but jesus, is it really that hard to do? I'll probably make an overlay or something to fix it, but holy shit dude.**

 **Also, side note: I finally made Ash. Here she is: imgur.c.o.m (slash) a (slash) 3hC3vSE**

 **Anyways, not much to say other than that The Outer Worlds is really fucking good. Read and enjoy the chapter, leave a review please.**

* * *

Ash glanced out the window of the magtrain, watching the graffiti go by. These tunnels, and this specific train she was riding, had been decommissioned years ago by the Empire, but the Ascendancy found significant use in these sprawling, effectively single train tunnels for getting their agents across Coruscant.

The interior of the train wasn't exactly classy, but it was certainly comfortable and well-maintained, especially for someone of Ash's discretion. She caused the bottom part of her viewplate to retreat into the upper part, and took a sip from her cocktail, a mix of Coruscant Gold and Blastech '44, with a dash of Malastare Zillo Beast for the flavor. The initial taste was a strong, cool, sweet one, like a Pinen fruit, but it left a very strong and very sour aftertaste with a strong 'punch' to it, reminiscent of a handful of Ora berries. It was honestly rather refreshing being served something as nice as that, when she had been drinking the cheapest whiskey she could find for years.

Ash pulled her bottom viewplate down again, and it locked into position, ensuring that her face would never be seen by anyone she didn't want to. She still had a few hours to go before the train arrived at the district, since 'discrete' didn't necessarily translate to 'fast'.

Choosing to review her plan one last time, Ash flicked open her datapad and set it on the table, moving her drink out of the way so it wouldn't accidentally spill on her equipment. Sti's workshop was probably a thirty-minute walk from the station, but she had a feeling she could cut it down to under ten. As she began to plan a route, she quickly ruled out using the pedestrian sidewalks and the service tunnels. The former would simply take too long, and the latter was such a labyrinthian nightmare that she'd rather not try them a second time.

That left the alleyways and stealing a transport. Deciding it was best to plan around what she might expect to encounter instead of just getting to Sti, she pulled up the notes she had on the district.

/ BU'LAL DISTRICT REPORT /

/ - District is very poor, even for 1313 standards, bordering on Nar Shaddaa levels of poverty. - /

/ - Cybernetics and augmentations are very common in the district, spurred by Sti's workshop. Most denizens have Gamma-grade modifications, but Beta-grades are not unheard of. Alphas are rumored to exist, but there is no concrete proof of them. - /

/ - Crime is extremely rampant, mostly consisting of junkies looking for their next fix of stims and Nu-Poz. 'Finer' types of criminals exist, namely Harvester gangs. Swoop-gangers are also fairly common. Mind yourself. - /

/ - Imperial presence is nonexistent. Law and order is maintained largely by salvaged CIS droids operated by Sti, and several small groups of mercenaries. Anything not under their control falls to Harvester gangs. - /

/ - Sti's droids largely consist of refurbished B1 battle droids brought up to the standards of OOM-series security droid variants. His forces are also bolstered with heavily modified B2 Super Battle Droids. Numbers are around a platoon's worth of droids. - /

/ - Sti is held in very high-regard by most of the district. Eliminate him silently, or the district's populace will come down on top of you. - /

Resting her head in her hand, Ash pondered how to go about the mission. OOM droids weren't easily tricked like a B1 was, and considering these were security models, they'd be much more suspicious of anything abnormal. The idea of tangling with B2s didn't appeal to her, either, especially considering the wildcard factor of them being highly modified. Taking the alleys to the workshop would be safer, but stealing a speederbike would definitely be faster, but she would have to do it quietly and without issue. Any attention would likely spell disaster for the entire mission. Every second wasted could be a second Sti spends planning an escape or an ambush.

Eventually, Ash decided to steal a speederbike as her first plan, and take the alleys as her second. If she couldn't find a bike, or if it was being watched, she'd take the alleys, but otherwise, the bike would be best.

Ash pulled out her twin Bryar pistols, checking them one last time. It was almost obsessive at this point, but if she failed and Sti got away because her blasters misfired, the Grand Ascendant might just kill her on the spot for her failure. After making absolutely sure they were both fully charged and ready to fire, she returned them to their holsters, and drew her cortosis combat knife from its sheath. Carefully examining the blade, she slowly ran the knife against the edge of the table. It cut a small sliver out of the table with no trouble at all. Satisfied with the blade's sharpness, she flipped it around. Engraved near the base of the blade were the letters 'K + V', which caused her to frown behind her mask.

Deciding not to feed the wound any more than she already had, Ash set the blade back in its sheath and laid down, intending to get some rest before the mission, the quiet hum of the magtrain's power systems lulling her to sleep.

* * *

Coruscant's maintenance shafts and service tunnels had always been something of an oddity to Nax. He'd seen the occasional blueprint for a sector pop up in the markets at Mos Eisley once or twice, and they made little sense to him whenever he looked them over. Now, though, he understood.

Coruscant's 'underbelly' in one of the most literal senses possible was a labyrinthian nightmare to navigate. Tunnels would seemingly start and stop at complete random, leading to nonsensical dead-ends. Water pipes and ventilation ducts would frequently criss-cross in the tunnels, nearly blocking the paths that they were walking on. It had no rhyme or reason to it, it was like a bunch of construction droids went ballistic and just built whatever they felt like. Hell, the only reason they hadn't gotten lost was because Arfive and Lexi were both familiar with the tunnel systems.

With 'familiar' actually meaning they just kinda knew the patterns these things were built in.

"You're positive we're going the right way?" Kyra asked for what must have been the fifth time in just as many minutes.

"You wanna take the lead, Kyra, be my guest." Lexi sarcastically answered, and Arfive turned his head back to the two of them, giving an annoyed series of chirps. "Quiet, you." she hissed at the droid, who seemed to giggle in glee at her annoyance.

Nax tapped his fingers along the foregrip of the Deecee. "Just how damned rare are manholes here, Lexi? We passed under the wall ten minutes ago, so what gives?" he asked, somewhat annoyed with this slight delay in their plans. Every second they weren't topside looking into the target was a second wasted.

"Hell if I know." Lexi replied, shining her glowrod down the tunnel. "I've never been on this side of 1313."

Nax glanced behind the group to check if something had been sneaking up on them, seeing only scampering rodents in the darkness, so he turned forward again. "Maybe it's an older part of the level?" he proposed.

"Could be." Lexi said, and the group fell silent again, with only their footsteps and Arfive's motivators making any sort of noise. After a brief period of walking in silence, Arfive suddenly made a series of aggressive chirps and whirrs, shining his light at a doorway. The group remained quiet.

There was an electronically filtered, nasally voice coming from the room, with a warm, flickering light coming from inside. It was whistling some sort of old marching music, Clone Wars-era, maybe. "Man, these scrap piles sure are getting heavier!" one voice said, clearly a B1.

"I know! It's like it never ends – look, here comes another pile!" a second voice said, and on cue, there was the sound of metal crashing against the floor. "…Seriously, there's so much of it! We'd be better off if he got one of those big cyborgs to come down here and just shovel it all into the incinerator. Or even better – get the salvage teams to do it themselves!" it complained.

The three of them weren't paying attention to Arfive, and only caught a glimpse of him entering the room. "Sonuva-" Nax hissed under his breath, prepping the Deecee just in case. Kyra and Lexi followed suit, falling in behind him.

"Hey, it's about time!" one of the droids said. "Help us move the salvage, slacker!" it ranted at Arfive, who only gave a confused series of gurgles. "What do you mean 'I'm not here to help'? That's why you were sent down here in the first place! I'm not about to get pushed over by an R5 unit!"

Before the droid could continue ranting and raving, Arfive beeped out an explanation. "…Oh." the same droid said, defeated. "You're just lost. Hey, Kissass?"

"What?"

"Wanna help this astro out and show him to the surface? I can handle this until you get back."

"Roger roger. Come on, little astro, let me show you the way out." the first droid said, before walking out the doorway right in front of Six, Kyra, and Lexi. It paid them no mind – either it didn't see them, or its photoreceptors were defective. Arfive came out after the B1 and whistled to them, and, very cautiously, they began to follow Arfive and 'Kissass'.

Compared to just a few minutes ago, the two droids were incredibly chatty. Arfive would gurgle out a question or maybe some philosophical posturing that only droids could truly grasp, like whether memory wipes were ethical, or if they were 'alive'. Their conversation eventually came down to the B1's name. "Why am I called Kissass?" the B1 asked, before looking away from Arfive and towards the wall. "…Well, about twenty years ago, when the Clone Wars were still going on, a lot of my kind developed little personality quirks. A lot of us just got chattier, but some other things happened, too." the droid explained, looking back at Arfive. "As for myself, I apparently became a kissass, in the words of my superior officer. My designation used to just be B1-KA, but after that it became Kissass. Funny how that happens."

Kyra, Lexi, and Nax all exchanged glances as they came to a t-section. "Exit's up that way." Kissass said, pointing to the left, where there was a faint shimmer of light coming from down a ramp. "It was fun talking to you, R5, but I gotta go back to work. Goodbye!" he finished, suddenly turning back to face the group, and they all froze up. Kissass, however, simply walked past them, as if they weren't even there, and the clanking of his metal feet against the duracrete slowly faded out into the distance.

"…How did he not see us?" Lexi questioned, trying to catch a glimpse of the droid in the dark tunnel. Arfive beeped and gurgled out an answer vaguely along the lines of 'sliced him remotely'. "…Fair enough."

Arfive, however, did not continue moving after answering Lexi's question. Instead, he turned straight up, and the tunnels lit up with the bright blue light of a hologram being emitted from Arfive's holoprojector. "Damn, Arfive, could you be any more obvious? It's pitch black in here!" Lexi hissed, and instead of doing something about their visibility, Arfive simply made the hologram dance in every color of the spectrum. Chortling at Lexi's obvious frustration with his antics, Arfive dimmed the hologram considerably, and stopped the rave of colors.

Focusing on just _what_ he had been projecting, the group quickly realized it was a map of the tunnel system. The tunnels were all clearly visible, marked in a dark blue, but there was one continuous line marked in an almost teal color. "…Looks like a path, but to where?" Kyra commented, leaning in close to look at the map. Arfive chirped out a response that it was the path Kissass had taken today, and Kyra turned to Nax. "Think it'll take us to the target?" she asked.

"Only one way to find out." Nax said confidently, readying the Deecee and tapping Arfive on the head three times. "Lead the way."

Arfive chirped and whirred as he took off down one of the many tunnels, but not up onto the surface.

* * *

"Excuse me, ma'am?" the mission coordinator said quietly to Ash, who was still resting. "We've arrived."

Ash quickly woke up, not with a start, but as if she were being woken up by her mother for her first day of school. "So we have." she said simply, sitting up and grabbing her bags of gear, doing one final gear check.

"Ma'am?" the coordinator said, unsure of how to speak to Ash.

"Yes?" Ash reflexively replied, not actually investing in the conversation much as she triple checked her Bryar pistols.

"How do you plan on extracting from the district once your mission is complete?"

Ash returned her Bryar pistols to their holsters and glanced at her datapad, half-keeping the coordinator in view. "That's classified information." Ash simply replied.

That earned her a snort from the coordinator. "Hah! You haven't lost that stick up your ass after all these years, Voto!" she suddenly laughed, and Ash did a double take on the coordinator. She was wearing simple black and red Ascendancy robes with the hood down, and she had short, red hair, and her eyes were an unnatural shade of green, with 'fragmented' irises that would glow blue in certain parts.

Ash slowly processed who it was, and the slightest hint of a smile appeared on her face. "Hello, Nevda." she said, her viewplate opening slightly to reveal only her eyes. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Nevda smiled and nodded once. "It has, Voto." she said, setting her hand on Ash's shoulder. "…Look, I know you've got a mission to carry out, but we can talk later. Right now, though, do you have an extract plan?"

Closing her viewplate again, Ash slung her bags around her waist. "I was gonna use the service tunnels, or maybe hijack a transport. Could probably smuggle myself out, too."

Laughing again, Nevda gave Ash a pat on the shoulder. "You haven't changed one bit, Voto – you always make a big deal about getting into places you shouldn't be, but you never think about how you're gonna get out." she went on in a friendly, if chiding manner. "Tell you what, I'll keep the magtrain a few blocks back from the station out of the district. Ping my commlink when you're done and I'll pick you up. Sound good?"

"Sounds good." Ash replied, before heading for the doors to the train.

"One last thing, Voto!" Nev suddenly said. "Good hunting!"

Ash nodded, before stepping out as the magtrain doors shut behind her, and the train swiftly slinked back into the shadows, far away from the district. It was basically pitch black in the 'station', so she flipped her viewplate to its low-light mode, and the 'station' lit up with a dim, blue color. The floor was completely covered in garbage. Seeing a small flight of stairs that most likely led out to street level, Ash carefully headed out. The stairs curved around once, and then twice, leading to an abandoned turnstile and ticket booth. Further ahead, she could see a faint blue light shining down into the station through the thick dust in the air, and she could hear the telltale chatter of pedestrians.

With a cursory glance into the ticket booth, Ash determined there was nothing of value, and vaulted over the turnstile silently, dashing to the wall on her left and hiding up against it. Shimmying to the corner, she poked her head around the corner and saw that the coast was clear. Relieved, she let go of the wall and began to calmly walk up the stairs to not arouse suspicion.

Only to see two men, both about six foot, come around the corner, down into the station. "Say, Wren, look what we have here…" one of them said in a sort of mocking tone.

"Another explorer that got lost, huh?" the other replied, giving off the slightest hint of a chuckle. "…Do you know where you are, lady?"

"…N-no, sir." Ash answered, faking a fearful stammer. The two men seemed to exchange glances when they finally came to the bottom of the stairs.

"What a right shame that is, isn't it? You've ended up in our turf, and around here, we have a little rule about tourists. They either pay our toll, or they disappear in an 'accident'. You understand?"

Ash nodded once, going along with their little scheme.

"So, you either pay up, or we find a way to make you pay."

Nodding again, she reached into her trenchcoat. "I understand, alright? Let me just get my datapad with my account on it." she said, easily faking the tone of an unnerved young woman who was afraid for her life. She briefly searched around her left side, grabbing hold of her knife. With absolutely no hesitation in her movements, she drew the knife from its sheath and threw it into the throat of the man on the left, hitting her target dead on. Neither of them had any time to react, and by the time they did, the first man had his hand over his throat trying to get the knife out, and Ash had already jumped up on the second man. Grabbing his head, she forcefully headbutted him, crashing his skull against her armored viewplate. He didn't seem affected in the slightest, though, so she repeated the move three more times, finally managing to knock him out cold.

Getting off of the man, she glanced over at the first one, who was still very much alive, staring at Ash with wide eyes. "…You… bitch!" he gurgled out, coughing out blood onto the duracrete floor.

"Maybe next time, don't try and extort an Arbiter." Ash replied coldly, her tone in stark contrast to mere seconds ago. The man's eyes went even wider as Ash grabbed her knife from his throat and then stabbing him in the heart, killing him instantly. "…Well, ex-Arbiter." Ash quietly added, before wiping the blood off on the dead man's clothes, Ash picked him up and moved him further into the darkness of the station, before coming back for the second man. She stashed both of their bodies in the empty booth, making sure to slit the second man's throat. Again, Ash wiped the blood off, quickly double checking that there wasn't any that could possibly identify her as the killer, and then she returned the blade to its sheath, finally leaving for street level.

The light that had been shining down into the station was actually an overhead neon sign for some sort of pawn shop next to the station entrance, probably dealing in illegal goods. There actually wasn't all that much activity on the street compared to what she heard in the station. There were maybe ten, fifteen people out right now? A lot of them looked augmented to some degree, but nothing Beta-grade or even Gamma, just run of the mill augs and cybernetics that you could get at a clinic.

Turning the corner of the pedestrian sidewalk on Ash's right were a pair of B1s, armed with E5 rifles, marching in a straight line towards her. Instead of a worn version of the standard Trade Federation tan, though, they were painted in similar red and gold colors to the Ascendancy's robes. Displayed proudly on their torsos was a sort of golden 'trident' symbol, probably Sti's. "Excuse me." Ash called out to the droids, and they stopped, turning their heads to face her.

"What seems to be the matter, miss?" the one on the left asked in the high pitched, monotone voice common to the B1.

"Do you know a place where I can get a stiff drink?" Ash asked casually.

The B1 on the right turned around and pointed to the corner. "About two blocks from that corner there, there's a relatively popular cantina that serve some decent drinks, or so we've heard." it answered, before turning back to Ash. "Fair warning, though, it's mostly frequented by the local swoop gang. Their names were, uhhh…." the droid droned, and its partner punched it in the side in response.

"The Vulcan Riders." its partner answered for it.

"Right, them. Watch yourself, miss." the second droid finished, before continuing their patrol, their metal feet clanking against the pavement as they walked away.

A swoop gang?

That was even _better_ than stealing speederbikes. This might not even take five minutes with how fast one of those things could go.

Quickly walking at a brisk pace around the corner and two blocks up from it, Ash immediately spotted the cantina on her side of the sidewalk. There were three swoop bikes out front, all Z4 models by the looks of things. She was about to grab one of those as fast as she could, when she heard the screeching engine of another swoop power down, and a tall, gruff looking swoop-ganger came out from an alley by the cantina, immediately heading inside. It seems that she wouldn't have to do this in the open. Very nice.

Ignoring the swoops out front, Ash glanced into the alleyway, and she was greeted with a seemingly endless series of custom swoopbikes, each and every one of them adorned with what was probably the emblem of the Vulcan Riders – a golden, one-winged Corellian Vulcan with silver detailing. She wasn't exactly picky about which one she was going to grab, but she _was_ concerned about people showing up. Heading about halfway into the alley to make sure there wasn't some sort of indent where people could be concealed, she was pleased with the lack of any witnesses.

Turning to the closest bike – a Flare-S modified to look similar to a BARC speeder, Ash knelt down and pulled the maintenance release latch, prying the control panel open. Quickly tracing the ignition wire to the starter for the repulsorlifts, she reached to connect them and jumpstart the swoop, but something else caught her attention. A small device was attached near the starter. Craning her head closer, she read the words 'Dassault-Mikoyan Vindis Transponder, Revision 4, All Rights Reserved' on top of it, pulsing a faint blue. Realizing what this meant, she reached in and removed the transponder, crushing it in her grip. Resuming with what she was supposed to do, she connected the two wires, and the swoop soared to life, jolting off of the ground, engine roaring.

Quickly shutting the panel, Ash practically leapt onto the swoop, kicking the foot pedal down and sending the swoop soaring out the other end of the alley. Quickly banking left, Ash raised her altitude just enough so that street-level traffic wouldn't bother her, but low enough that she wouldn't be fighting with airspeeders for room.

As Ash felt the wind blow against her clothes, the bright neon lights, the pedestrians, and every building and airspeeder all blended together into a visual blur that Ash's eyes couldn't hope to keep up with. Before she knew it, she had arrived at the alley that led to Sti's workshop. Powering down the swoop, she got off and headed into the alley.

The only real indicator of Sti's workshop even being present were two B2s sat outside the entrance, diligently waiting to screen anyone heading inside. Calmly, she approached the pair, her hands in her trenchcoat's pockets. " _ **HALT.**_ " one of the Supers bellowed. " _ **STATE YOUR BUSINESS.**_ "

"I'm here to buy a guard droid for my cousin." Ash calmly replied to the massive killing machine.

" _ **UNDERSTOOD. PLEASE ASSUME THE INSPECTION POSITION.**_ " it bellowed again, and before the Supers could scan her for weapons, she pulled out two restraining bolts from her trenchcoat, throwing them onto the droids, shutting them down. Not waiting for something to malfunction and the droids to realize that she wasn't here to actually trade, Ash opened the door to the workshop.

Quickly heading down the stairs, she came out to a fairly well-lit main lobby of sorts – droids of various models were situated in display cases on the side, some of them refurbished CIS droids, others were antiques and oddities, like a white and red C1 astromech, or a completely rebuilt T3 droid.

As she headed up to the counter, she heard a kind of deep, scratchy voice come from the backroom. "I'll be with you in a second!" a man said. Doing one quick check of her Bryar pistols, Ash waited for Sti to come out. After a brief wait, he did finally show himself. He was a Duros of average height and build, although he looked slightly older than intelligence said. He looked at Ash with his large, dim red eyes. "What did you need, miss?" he asked, trying to seem as friendly as he reasonably could.

"I'm here to deliver a message." Ash replied.

Sti stood up straight. "Well, what are you waiting for? Hand it over." he requested, and Ash shook her head.

"I think you misunderstand, Baal Sti." she suddenly said in a much more menacing tone, pulling her Bryar pistol from its holster and putting it to his head. "It's not a message you can read."

Sti's expression didn't change in the slightest. "…I knew this day would come. Nothing escapes the eye of your Ascendancy, does it?" he asked, surprisingly calm.

"No." Ash replied simply, pulling the trigger and sending the overcharged bolt through his skull.

Returning the pistol to its holster, Ash vaulted the counter and headed into the backrooms, intent on grabbing every datapad she could find. After several minutes of rummaging through Sti's stocks, she decided that she had found everything, and went to wipe the security recordings. When she was done, she simply walked back out the entrance, her pack swaying behind her with all of her evidence in it.

* * *

" _What just happened, Nax? I heard a blaster go off!"_ Kyra whispered, struggling to keep still as she was sandwiched between Nax in the front, and Lexi behind her, with Arfive being dragged along face down in the vent by his cable.

" _Someone just came in and shot Sti in the face. Now, quiet, she's still here."_ Nax whispered back to her, cautiously watching the strange person move about the workshop, collecting datapads and such. Something about her seemed… familiar to him. Even though she had only said one thing, and he couldn't even see her face, something about the way she moved and carried herself was intensely familiar to Nax, but he couldn't place a finger on just _who_ 'she' was.

Eventually, she moved back to the doorway and turned around once, the spinning 'eye' on her mask glancing roughly in the general direction of the vent, before the woman left, shutting the door behind her. Nax waited one more minute before he cracked the vent open and jumped out, turning around and holding his arms out to catch Kyra, who jumped out next. Setting her down, and preparing to grab Lexi, she actually moved past the grate, pushing Arfive out next, dangling from his cable, warbling and screaming for help. Nax quickly grabbed the astromech and set him down so that he wouldn't draw any more attention to them than was necessary, and then Lexi jumped out, stumbling into Nax, but otherwise she was on her feet. Pointing to the door with his thumb, Nax gave Arfive a little kick to get his attention. "Slice that door and lock it, Arfive. I don't want anyone barging in on us." he ordered, and Arfive twirled his head around in annoyance, moving to slice the control panel.

"Found a repulsorsled!" Lexi shouted from the backroom. "Four of them, actually!" she added on.

"Get them linked up and start loading!" Nax responded, pulling out his datapad to take a picture of Sti's dead body for Wilrand, before moving to open the display cases and grab the droids from them. Kyra, however, decided to do some searching of her own.

Walking into the backroom where Lexi was messing with the repulsorsled links, she glanced over Sti's desk. Whoever had shot him had stripped it bare of whatever notes and documents he may have had. Running her eyes up the wall, she saw something strange. It was a large crack in the wall, as if it were fractured. "Hey, Lexi?" Kyra asked.

She stopped her work with the repulsorsleds, glancing over to Kyra. "Yeah?"

"Did you see this huge crack in the wall?"

"…No?" Lexi answered, coming over to see what Kyra was pointing at. "…I don't see anything, Kyra. You sure you didn't take in too many fumes from the service tunnel?" she questioned, putting her hand on her hip.

"Positive." Kyra responded, before tracing a vague outline of the fracture. "Do you seriously not see this?"

Lexi leaned in closer over the desk. "…Okay, _now_ I see it." she said, before giving Kyra a somewhat annoyed look, and then returning to her work with the repulsorsleds. Kyra, though, pushed her hand against the crack, and much to her surprise, the wall seemed... soft? It was certainly weak, and judging by how far she had managed to push it, _something_ was behind it. Kyra balled her fist up and put it close to the crack, tempted to punch it. She was wearing Mandalorian armor, so the worst that would realistically happen would be some minor pain from the blunt force of smashing a duracrete wall, but…

She inched her fist closer, before deciding to go through with this stupid idea of hers. With all of her might, she punched the crack. Instead of nothing happening like she thought, though, her fist went clean through the fracture. The cracks expanded out from the original fracture point, covering the entire wall, before cracking and shattering like glass. Chunks of duracrete fell down onto the table in front of her, crushing it, before crumbling into dust. Miraculously, nothing landed on Kyra.

When the dust eventually cleared, it revealed a small, hidden room, containing a locker, a wall-mounted terminal, and a droid stasis pod, with a single, modified B2 Super Battle Droid locked inside.

"What the hell did you do?" Nax suddenly shouted from the archway to the back, staring slackjawed at Kyra, who still had her fist at the point where the crack used to be, effectively frozen.

"…I… punched the wall. And it… broke?" Kyra stumbled, not exactly believing her own words, even though she had just punched a wall into several modest piles of dust.

Lexi stopped her work on the repulsorsleds and rushed over to Kyra. "Holy shit!" she said in surprise, staring into the hidden room.

"…I don't-" Kyra stammered again, seemingly in response to Lexi.

"Kyra, you just punched a damn _wall_ to pieces! How the hell do you _think_ I'm gonna react?" Lexi shouted, before noticing the B2 inside the room, and Lexi wasted no time in approaching it. "Wait, this droid…" she mumbled quietly.

Nax finally came into the backroom, standing behind Kyra and Lexi. "It's a B2. What about it?"

Shaking her head, Lexi gave Nax a glance. "It's not a B2."

"…How?" Kyra asked. "It looks like one."

Lexi entered the room, pressing her fingers against the glass of the stasis pod. "Look at how the plates are fitted to the frame. Regular B2s don't have individual fitted plates like this one does, they're all one single shell." she explained, tracing her fingers up to the strange, dim red 'hole' in the top of the droid. "And this? B2s don't have this. If I had to guess, it's some sort of modification they had to make to the original shell to fit a new power core. For what, I'm not exactly sure."

Nax put his hand on his hip, impatiently staring at the droid. "Where are you going with this?" he asked, before glancing to make sure Arfive was still at the front door.

Lexi turned and put her arm against the stasis pod. "I think this is a C-B3 we have here. In short, it's an upgraded B2 from the Clone Wars, they're _very_ rare and _very_ powerful. Only one planet ever made them, and the Republic blew the factory up before the end of the first year of the war. My friend, Relan, used to gush about getting his hands on one of these things."

"So it's a collector's item?" Nax questioned, suddenly significantly more curious about the droid. "How much is it worth?"

Lexi shrugged casually, tapping on the pod glass. "Honestly, I couldn't tell you. They only made so many of the damn things, they might as well be one-of-a-kind. You might be able to sell it off to some crimelord for a pretty chit. Maybe, I dunno, two hundred thousand credits? I don't know anything solid about the illegal droid trade, but that's what I'd probably put it at."

Nax cracked his knuckles and headed into the room with Lexi, pressing his hand against the pod glass. "Well, I think we've just found our payday." he said greedily, right as Arfive came running into the backroom, warbling and whining. "What? What do you want?" Nax said, turning to the droid.

Right then and there, everyone quieted down enough to hear hard smashing against the door. _**"OPEN UP."**_ two heavy voices commanded in unison.

"Shit! He had B2s outside!" Lexi hissed, rushing over to the terminal. Pulling the keyboard out and turning it on, she rapidly began to type. "…System diagnostics look okay. Looks like he's got a TriShot, micro missiles, a repeating heavy autoblaster, and deflectors…" Lexi mumbled quietly, hastily working, before practically smashing the input key on the terminal. "Fingers crossed." she said hesitantly, turning to the droid.

The pod's interior lit up, and the door folded inside itself, making a pressurized hissing noise as it did so. The red light on the battle droid's torso brightened, and the droid sat straight up, taking two steps out of the pod, its weight turning those steps into stomps. "Greetings, Master Strag, Master Sapphyra, Master Kyra. I am C-B3-KO, designation 'Knockout'." the battle droid said in a deep, menacing voice. "What is your command?"

Cautiously, Nax pointed towards the front door. "There are two B2s outside that are going to try and kill us." he said, but before he could finish, Knockout was already moving past him, weapons at the ready.

"Understood." was the only response he gave as he stomped towards the door.

Stopping dead in front of it, Knockout reached out his hand to the control panel on the left and _immediately_ sliced it open, despite Arfive's best efforts at having kept it locked. Thankfully, the size of Knockout blocked the droids line of sight to Nax and the others. Instead of conversing with the droids, though, Knockout grabbed them both, forcibly pulled them inside, and punched two massive holes into their torsos, immediately disabling the droids, shutting and re-locking the door again. "Order complete. Please input new orders." Knockout suddenly boomed.

All four of them stared at the crumpled bodies of the Supers. There wasn't even a fight – Knockout punched clean through them like they were made of paper. They then exchanged glances, just to make sure they had all seen the same thing, and then looked back at Knockout, who was facing the group. "Please input new orders." he repeated.

"…Wait one second, Knockout." Nax said, before forcibly pulling everyone into a huddle. "So. We have a a rare B2 variant that can punch holes in regular Supers. Any suggestions?" he said in a whispering tone, glancing back at Knockout distrustfully.

Arfive wobbled from side to side, gurgling out a suggestion half-assedly.

"No." Nax immediately replied. "Not a chance."

"…We could throw a restraining bolt on it and shut it down?" Kyra opined, carefully looking at Knockout. "We'd need to do it carefully, but…"

Biting his lip, Nax sighed. "Maybe. Lexi, what do you think?"

Nervously, Lexi shifted her gaze between Kyra, Nax, and Arfive. "Well, we _could_ stick it on the ship. Nobody's going to hijack it if we have him on-board." she advised.

Nax opened his mouth to protest her suggestion, but after quickly thinking on it, changed his mind. "…That's not a bad idea, actually." he remarked, before glancing at Knockout, who was still standing idle. "How are we going to get out of here, though? There's no way we can get all these pars up through that vent, and I don't think parading around topside with a bunch of droids we've stolen is the best idea."

Arfive immediately extended his middle leg, rolling up to Knockout. "Greetings, R5 unit." Knockout said, his voice still menacing and deep. "Did you need something?" he asked. Arfive chirped out a question, and Knockout 'nodded' his torso. "Yes, allow me to show you the way." he said, stomping into the backroom again. All of them watched as Knockout lined himself up against the wall, raised his arm, and punched into the wall. Instead of his arm snapping off, or stopping dead, the wall crumbled outwards, revealing the maintenance tunnel they had come from some minutes ago.

Nax, Kyra, and Lexi all looked among themselves. "You know what? I think he gets to stay." Nax said confidently. "Load the stuff up onto the sleds. Knockout!" he suddenly called out, and the hulking droid turned to face him. "You wouldn't happen to know of a place where a YT-series freighter could, I dunno, load a bunch of cargo unnoticed by the Empire, would you? Maybe some sort of unused portal that the maintenance tunnels lead to?"

"Yes." Knockout replied simply.

In response, Nax pulled out a beckon call. "Transmit the coordinates to this device, then."

"Already done, Master Strag."

Impressed, Nax slowly retracted the beckon call from Knockout, pressing down on the device's button, receiving a confirming electronic beep that the ship was now on its way. "Strip this place clean!" Nax ordered. "There's money to be made here, let's not let anything go to waste!"

Within twenty minutes, they had completely stripped the workshop bare of any droid parts they could get their hands on, loading them up onto the repulsorsleds. They had also taken several datapads out of the locker in Knockout's hidden room that the assassin had missed. Given another twenty, they had loaded everything onto the ship, and were on their way back to Coru-Hiver territory. In the meantime, Nax decided to see what was on the datapads they had stolen.

Blindly picking one of five datapads set out on the holotable, Nax turned it on and was greeted with the screen turning a dark shade of green. A black, hollow circle appeared in the middle of it shortly after it turned on, with a black strip running through it to the right, with a single red spot in the middle of said strip, faintly pulsing.

Waiting for the datapad to finally properly boot, Nax impatiently tapped on the screen, only for the circle to move in response, before resetting itself. Surprised that he actually needed to input something, Nax dragged his finger clockwise. Rotating it around once, the circle stopped moving once the strip was moving diagonally down and to the right, before fading away, alongside the dark green, revealing an audio file that automatically began playing. "BEGIN MESSAGE." the device boomed, before switching to the voice of a calm, collected man.

"…Greetings, Baal Sti. We trust that this message receives you well." he said after a short pause. "Your inquiries into the Path have not gone unnoticed by our Knights. Normally, we would make an effort to remove sinners such as yourself, however, given a recent set of circumstances concerning the Ascendancy, as well as your own set of skills, the Arch-Canon has determined you… salvageable." he went on, sounding most pleased with himself.

The Path? Arch-Canon?

The voice continued, unabated. "A Handler, R.M, will be with you soon for processing. May Ludd guide your path." the man finished, and the file ended, the datapad shutting down with it.

Setting the datapad back in the pile, Nax leaned back and ran his hand through his hair, shutting his eyes as he processed the message. Whoever this 'Path' was, they had issues with the Ascendancy, which could maybe work in their favor if the Coru-Hivers ever went to war with them in the future.

Opening his eyes again, Nax saw Lexi looking at him, visibly tired and bored. "The hell'd you find on that datapad?" she asked. "Something about a path?"

"From what I heard, it sounded more like an organization. They mentioned a Handler, whatever that is, an Arch-Canon, and someone called Ludd." he replied, stretching out his leg and cracking his fingers.

Lexi's pupils seemed to shrink. "It mentioned an Arch-Canon and Ludd?" she asked, and Nax nodded, unaware of the significance of this. Grabbing the datapad from him, she turned her head around the corner, back into the halls. "Knockout! Get over here!" she shouted, and Nax quickly heard the heavy footfalls of their new war droid approaching.

Knockout turned the corner and faced the two of them. "Yes, Master Sapphyra?" he boomed in his deadpan tone of voice.

Holding out the datapad, Lexi rested her head against the seat lazily. "Can you slice this?" she asked.

Knockout paused. "…Already done, Master Sapphyra." he bellowed, before returning to wherever he had been stored. Nax and Lexi exchanged glances, shrugged, and then turned the datapad on again. The symbol lock was gone – completely skipped over, as was the initial memo. In their place was now a sort of file system, set up to be as organized as possible. Lexi randomly tapped of the folders on the datapad, and the screen expanded to show hundreds of recordings, images, text files, and notes.

Immediately, Lexi held her head in her hands as she scanned through each file, before shifting her attention to Nax. "…This isn't just a datapad from a group of schmucks trying to be all cryptic." Lexi said softly, causing him to raise an eyebrow.

"…Then who is it?" he questioned, trying to get a look at the datapad's contents.

Lexi breathed in and sat back, keeping her attention on Nax. "It's a datapad belonging to an agent of the Path of Ludd. They're a group of radical, religious zealots who believe technology is the source of the galaxy's troubles. They want nothing more than to reduce everyone to a bunch of primitives living in caves, afraid of the shadows on the wall." she explained quietly, putting the datapad into sleep mode.

"…And they're on Coruscant because they view a city-planet as some sort of great sin?" Nax deduced.

Lexi nodded. "There was a cell of Pathers operating on the lower levels when I was ten. Everyone knew they were there – had been since the Clone Wars. Thing is, nobody took their threats seriously, not even the Empire." Lexi explained, progressively sounding more and more sullen. "My mom went to work one morning, and the rail her magtrain was using was destroyed by a bomb. The train derailed, and everyone on the ground was either confused, or trying to help the survivors. A bunch of transport landspeeders pulled up not long after the crash and unloaded a bunch of Pathers, and then…" Lexi choked up, tears beginning to well.

"You don't need to say any more, Lexi." Nax interrupted, trying to keep her from remembering all of the details. He already had the picture of what happened.

Sniffling, Lexi rested her head on Nax's shoulder. "Four hundred and thirty-two people. That's how many people died in that attack, and my mom was among them. Dad was never the same after that, and he ended up just… disappearing. Eath took me in when he vanished." she rambled, before clenching her fists in anger. "And still, even though the Empire made it a point to massacre the cell to the last man, I'm sitting here, staring proof of a new cell right in the face. I'm still just as powerless to stop them now as I was ten years ago." she finished in a defeated tone.

"…No, you're not." Nax replied, causing Lexi to suddenly perk up. "Remember, Vopa's part of the Coru-Hivers. He probably knows people who can bring this new cell down before they can do anything to anyone." Nax said in a reassuring manner.

"…You're positive?" Lexi quietly asked, and Nax pulled her in closer.

"Absolutely." he replied confidently.

That seemed to get Lexi to ease up a little, and she wiped the tears away. "…Thanks, Nax. You don't have any idea how much this means to me." she said softly. "…Really, you don't."

Nax gave her a reassuring smile. "Anything for a friend, Lexi."

Lexi smiled back, before pulling away and and standing up, stretching her arms out. "…I need a drink." she mumbled under her breath, before heading to the galley.

Deciding that he'd rather save the datapads for Vopa, Nax stood up and began to head to the cockpit, passing by an idling Knockout. "Greetings, Master Strag. Would you like me to accompany you?" he boomed.

"No." Nax simply replied, continuing past the droid.

"Understood, Master Strag." Knockout said, returning to his idle position.

As Nax walked through the tube to the cockpit, he could hear Arfive warbling and whirring angrily. "…And I keep telling you, you're wrong!" Kyra shouted at Arfive. Nax poked his head around the corner and saw Kyra lazing in the copilot's chair, her feet on the pilot's chair, attention squarely focused on Arfive, who was plugged into the ship and piloting them out into a portal. "Hey, Nax? Settle an argument for me." she asked. "In a one-on-one fight, would Knockout win against an ARC trooper?"

Nax sat down in the pilot's seat, kicking back. "What the hell's an ARC trooper?" he questioned, and Kyra shrugged.

"Some sort of modified clone trooper from the Clone Wars. Arfive says his regiment had a couple squads of them." she explained. "They were faster, stronger, more independent, and better equipped than the rank and file troops, at least according to him."

Nax smirked. "…What I think, Kyra, is that you need to stop bullying senile old war veterans." he teased, earning a chuckle from Kyra, and a series of blustered, angry chirps from Arfive, who immediately began projecting a recording of a single Clone trooper, adorned in matte black armor, taking down multiple battle droids under heavy fire with only two blaster pistols, blaster bolts pinging off of his armor and hitting the dirt beneath him. The recording quickly cut off. "Sheesh, relax, Arfive. We're just taking the piss out of you – no need to get so upset over it." Nax defended, to which Arfive responded with an indignant series of chirps, before returning to his work piloting the ship.

The two of them laid back in their chairs as they watched the ships flying through the inside of the portal go by. Glancing at Kyra, Nax saw that she was deep in thought about _something_ , with a disconcerted look on her face. "Something the matter?" Nax asked, concerned for her.

Kyra swiveled her chair around to face him. "…Yeah, something's been bothering me." she said softly, resting her head on her hand . "Remember how I told you that I don't remember anything before waking up on Lostur's ship?"

"Yeah?"

Kyra sighed, shutting her eyes and blowing some air up into her hair to get her bangs out of her face. "…Well, I've been thinking about that, and I want to know something." she hesitantly said, slowly opening her eyes. "If I do have family, and they're out there looking for me, let's say they somehow find me and want me to come back to them. What would you do, Nax?"

Crossing his legs, Nax sat up in the chair. "Obviously, I wouldn't want you to leave, but whether you stay or not isn't my decision to make – it's yours, Kyra." he answered, crossing his arms. "I don't control who you are or what decisions you make. You do. I can only give you my opinion."

Kyra shifted her position slightly so that her right leg was in the chair. "…Okay, follow up – let's say we find out who I was before I was enslaved, and it turns out that I was an awful, terrible person. What would you think of me then?" Kyra queried, visibly wary of Nax's answer.

Shaking his head in disapproval at her question, Nax eyed her. "I wouldn't think of you any differently than I do now, Kyra. This hypothetical past version of you wouldn't even be remotely close to how you act now." he reasoned, before getting up and putting his hand on Kyra's shoulder. "The Kyra _I_ know is one of the kindest people I've ever met, end of story. Nothing you did in the past can change how I think of you, because you've _never_ acted that way towards me or anyone else."

Kyra gave him a smile, before standing up and hugging him. "…I knew there was something about you when we first met in the cantina, Nax." she said, relieved. "Thanks for taking a chance on me." she finished in a soft tone. Smiling back at her, Nax pulled her close.

The two of them would have been content to enjoy the moment, had it not been for Lexi walking into the cockpit. "Oh, I'm sorry. Am I interrupting something, or should I wait until you two kiss?" she teased, leaning against the doorway, causing Kyra and Nax to break apart, embarassed.

Kyra turned to face her. "N-no, you're not interrupting anything, Lexi..." she stammered, her face beet red, clearly embarrassed, before she sat back down in the copilot's chair.

Simply smiling and shaking her head, Lexi sat in the chair behind the copilot's seat. "Uh-huh. Sure." she continued to tease. " _Clearly_ you're only interested in him as a friend."

"Shut up!" Kyra shouted in response, earning her a laugh from Lexi, and a series of amused chirps from Arfive. "You too, Arfive!" she yelled again, which only served to make them laugh harder. "Nax! Can you tell them to shut up, please?!" she begged.

Nax simply smirked. "I dunno, Kyra. Watching you get flustered _is_ pretty funny." he remarked, causing Kyra to glare daggers at him. "Alright, alright, cut it out you two, before Kyra punches me in the face." he ordered, trying his best to avoid laughing. Lexi and Arfive quickly calmed down, but both were snickering for a while after he gave the order to stop.

From there, the rest of the trip was smooth flying back to Coru-Hiver territory.

* * *

Observing the scene outside the workshop, a lone woman, nearly six feet tall, spoke into a commlink. "It's Misaki." the woman said in a cool, icy tone. "Sti's been killed by the Ascendancy, like we predicted."

" _Has anyone identified the agent? The Ascendancy's agents have been getting sloppier with their work as of late."_ a man on the other end of the comm questioned. " _If you can determine their methods, I'll be able to figure out which one did it."_

Misaki shook her head in frustration. "Funny thing about that – nothing particularly sticks out about the way they went about the hit." she replied quietly, brushing a white strip of hair out of her face, as rain began to lightly drizzle against her hood. "They stole a swoop bike from a cantina near a decommissioned magtrain line, drove here, threw temporary restraining bolts on the guard droids, waltzed in, and blew his head clean off. Seems to have stolen everything inside and wiped the security recordings, too."

" _They took everything? How did they get away?"_ the voice asked again.

"You're not paying me to give you answers to questions I don't know." Misaki snapped coldly, before breathing in. "…There's also a collapsed part of the wall inside that looked like a secret room – had a droid stasis pod that was empty. Another part of the wall was smashed open and led to some maintenance tunnels. The door droids also had some pretty damn big holes punched in their torsos." she finished reporting, switching the ear the communicator was against, glancing up at the rain.

The man on the other end made a few noises of consideration. _"…Why would the Ascendancy steal everything in Sti's workshop? They certainly have the ability to produce their own droids and augmentations – what reason would they have to pillage from him?"_ he pondered idly. _"…Unless it wasn't the agent that stole everything."_ the man deduced.

"That's what I'm thinking. An Ascendancy agent wouldn't leave this much evidence around, sloppy as they are. It has to be some third party." she spoke into the communicator, sticking her hand into her pocket. "I've done about everything I can. I'm heading back to the warehouse." Misaki said, her ice-cold tone, sending shivers down the man's spine, even though they were a world apart.

" _Understood."_

Shutting the communicator off, she slipped it into her pocket, and began to return to the service tunnel she had come from. "My, my, Sti. Just what did you get yourself into?" she idly mumbled, her magenta eyes seeming to shimmer against the artificial rain droplets as she walked.

* * *

 **That's all for this chapter. So much for a fucking late September release, lmfao.**

' **Till next time.**

 **-Tweak**


	13. A Quiet Life

**So, I've been watching The Mandalorian, and been playing Fallen Order. First, I'm fucking shocked that Disney has had the property for like six fucking years, yet only produced something as good as these two** _ **now.**_ **It's fucking wild.**

 **Second, both are really, really good. I'm loving the Mandalorian – it's probably what Pulsar Company would have been had Kyra and Lexi not been characters, or simply disappeared after serving their purposes (or in Lexi's case, die. So glad I didn't go through with that, because I** _ **really**_ **like her). Also, Yeed is fucking adorable and I will protect him with my goddamn life.**

 **Fallen Order is also shockingly good, and I say this as someone really not into Soulslikes. I beat the game, and it's absolutely phenomenal how well made the game is. It's like everything we've been asking for in terms of new games since the fucking buyout, holy shit. Aside from gushing over how good the game is, BD-1 is incredibly cute, objectively moreso than BB-8, and Merrin is incredibly pretty, holy shit.**

 **Now that that's out of the way, something else;**

 **I've updated** _ **all**_ **of the girls for Pulsar Company with what I hope are their more or less final looks. Here's their looks: imgur.c.o.m. (slash) a (slash) M42OUxE**

 **Anyways, read and review.**

* * *

A man stared at his completed work, a painting depicting combat between one of many insurgent cells in the Outer Rim territories, and the Empire. Naturally, as this was commissioned by an influential senator, it was from the Empire's perspective. TIE fighters soared triumphantly through the air as scout walkers patrolled through the streets of the small village, with Stormtroopers and Imperial Army troops breaching and clearing the buildings. In the corner, there was the burned-out hulk of a Dunelizard fighter, its pilot being escorted away by a non-commissioned officer and several Army troops.

Setting his brush aside, the man tapped his chin thoughtfully. "…Perfectly adequate. It'll fetch quite a handsome sum from the client, but…" he said, sounding increasingly droll and bored. He looked over to a small collection of datapads – unfinished novels and stories that he could not bring himself to complete. Harrowing tales of cosmic horrors beyond the comprehension of any sentient, stories of brave heroism from Imperial soldiers in the Rim fighting terrorists, and anthology collections about plucky smugglers, ruthless pirate captains, and daring bounty hunters. Yet not a single one of them had been published.

He was passionate about his work – ruthlessly so, yet the fact of the matter was that he was effectively a writer in name only. The only work the galaxy had ever known him for were his paintings and sculptures he produced under his alias. Many influential figures had commissioned him; Beleza and Lukan Moryne commissioned one some years ago to celebrate their thirtieth year of marriage, and tenth anniversary of House Moryne becoming a Great House of Alderaan, while Lant Ulgo, one of House Ulgo's up-and-comers, commissioned a piece for his betrothed, who had mysteriously disappeared not long after the painting had been delivered a few months ago. There was even one commission that stuck out to him as being very hush-hush and overtly secretive, even for his standards, but a few inquiries here, some bribes there, and he had enough evidence to suggest that either a Grand Admiral, or the Emperor himself, had commissioned the piece.

Money, however, was not his main concern with writing, or even painting. What he wanted, though, was recognition for his work, and he had received just that. He easily had enough money to purchase a small moon if he so chose, yet he preferred to live frugally in the underbelly of Coruscant. The people here were certainly interesting. The impoverished, the revolutionary, the criminal, and the fanatical all gathered down here away from prying eyes to live their lives as they saw fit. He had seen many gang wars in his time, rarely with Imperial involvement, and yet, life went on. It was a truly fascinating case study of the criminal underworld of a city-planet like Coruscant.

Setting his thoughts aside while the paint dried, he continued to deliberate over what to do with his stories. Deciding to sort through his reference material again, he stood up and opened his closet, revealing a collection of marble brain sculptures. Taking one out and into his hands, the man carefully examined his creation – every fold and wrinkle was down to the original details as he had envisioned them. At the base of the sculpture were the words 'Pando Misaki' engraved on them, the name of the brain's owner, as he recalled. A fine fellow that made for a delicious meal. The brain next to his was marked 'Yasumichi Misaki', his wife. Her feelings of passivity made for a very bitter soup indeed, only made remotely palatable by her fear in her last moments. There was, however, an empty space for the third member of the Misaki family; Reika, who had managed to get away from him. A shame, really. She would have tasted fantastic – a great finisher for a three course meal.

A cursory glance over the rest of his collection confirmed his suspicions that he would need more material. "Sekhuo!" he shouted in a cold, raspy voice.

Without missing a beat, a man wearing tattered old rags for clothes came scampering into the room on all fours, mouth panting like a tamed beast. "Yes, master?" he said in a frenetic tone.

"Fetch me my list of potential marks. I'm running low on material to write with." the man commanded, and Sekhuo frantically nodded, scampering into the other room to grab the list. Perhaps it would be beneficial to cause some skirmishes between the Hivers and the Union.

* * *

Idly toying with two credsticks between his fingers, Nax glanced towards the front window of the cantina. Kyra was sitting in a booth just outside the view into the cantina from the street, daydreaming in Nax's direction, while Arfive idled beside her protectively. Lexi was sitting at the far end of the counter, scrolling through her datapad and occasionally being served a drink by Eath, which she'd down in record time.

In the soft glow of the interior lighting that had escaped out onto the street, Nax could make out two small figures, running and dancing around each other, before two men in Coru-Hiver gear appeared, shooing them away, before disappearing themselves. Shortly after, the cantina door opened, and Vopa came through, waving off the second Coru-Hiver. Eath nodded to him, while Lexi gave him the barest form of acknowledgement she could muster with how much she had drunk. Nax simply beckoned Vopa over.

Pulling up the stool next to him, Vopa leaned on the counter with his left arm. "You called, Nax?" he said expectantly.

Nax nodded, reaching into his duster and pawing for the Pather datapad, pulling it out. "Yeah. I found this." he answered, and Vopa took the datapad from him with mild curiosity.

"The hell is this?" he asked, briefly confused, before turning it on and being greeted by the symbol of the Path, and his eyes went wide. "…Oh, hell." he silently mumbled as he unlocked the datapad with ease, almost as if he had done this a thousand times before. The datapad skipped the memo to Sti, and went straight to the files, which Vopa scanned through. "…Do you have any idea what this is?" he asked, giving Nax a weary look.

"A datapad from the Path of Ludd. Lexi told me that they had a cell on Coruscant until she was ten." Nax answered. "The Empire wiped them out."

Breathing in, Vopa shut his eyes, suddenly getting more serious. "Did she also tell you that, when the Empire wiped them out, thousands of civilians got caught in the crossfire?" he poised. "I don't mean people killed in shootouts between the Empire and the Path - I mean people getting accused and disappeared on the _suspicion_ that they were with the Path. You couldn't even _breathe_ without the ISB trying to shove a stunstick up your exhaust port, or throwing an Interrogator droid at you if you got turned in."

Nax straightened up. "Sounds like you think the Empire was wrong to be paranoid about who was a Pather and who wasn't, Vopa."

Vopa shook his head. "No, the Empire was justified in its paranoia – we've never had an attack as bad as what the Path pulled outside of wartime." he elaborated, before sighing. "I'm saying that if this new cell is as big as the old one – a lot more people are going to disappear than last time if the Empire finds out." Vopa finished, before setting the datapad inside his jacket. "You were right to bring this to me – I'll get dupes of this made and send them out to my contacts. The Coru-Hivers'll put a stop to this cell before anything happens. I just have one question, though – how did you find this?"

Nax stacked the credchips on top of each other and looked Vopa in the eyes. "Lexi went up to Wilrand's store to buy parts to fix our Threepio droid. She ended up coming back with the parts _and_ a job to take out some of Wilrand's competition, a Duro by the name of Baal Sti, working out of the Bu'lal district."

"Wasn't he with the Ascendancy? Nax, if you got caught-" Vopa cautioned, only for Nax to interrupt him.

"I'm getting to that – he _was_ with the Ascendancy. All of us were crawling through the vents to his workshop, and I saw him talking to some girl. Couldn't get any features from her, since she was completely covered in either armor or cybernetics. She was _also_ apparently with the Ascendancy, and seemed to know Sti was a traitor, so she shot him, looted the place, and then left. She never saw us." Nax recounted, before lifting his right leg on top of his left. "We did the same once she was gone – Kyra found a fake wall, opened it, and that datapad was inside."

Giving Nax a curious look, Vopa raised an eyebrow. "You said an Ascendancy agent showed up and shot him? Can you elaborate on that?" he asked, and Nax leaned into the counter a little.

"Sure. She was short, about four foot nine. Had a gray urban camo trenchcoat with a hood up. She carried around this, I dunno, I guess a small leather tool belt? Had some big milsurp packs on her, too." Nax detailed, idly tapping his fingers against the counter. "Oh, and one more thing – she had this mask on. Looked like a series of durasteel plates, the middle part was sort of a dark gray column, but the edges of the plates were an almost crimson red, and at the top was a sort of spinning orangeish-red glow, not sure what it did."

Giving Nax a look of acknowledgement, Vopa move to press down on his buzzing commlink. "Noted – I'll have my people look into this person. They sound like an Arbiter for the Ascendancy, but I'm not sure. In the meantime…" Vopa said, before pressing down on the commlink. "Hello? What did you want, Corbar?" he spoke into the device, receiving a muffled reply, causing Vopa's expression to go blank. "…I'll be right over." he said, before getting up out of the stool and rushing for the door.

"Something happen, Vopa?" Eath said, putting away Lexi's glass as she idly scrolled around on her datapad, somehow not completely smashed.

"Corbar just called me. Desani's been murdered." Vopa said succinctly.

Eath made a hissing sound in response, although it sounded more out of frustration than malice. "I'll keep that in mind if he drops by and wave his tab for him."

Nax suddenly spoke up. "..Who are Corbar and Desani?"

Vopa stopped mid-stride. "Corbar is one of my lieutenants. Desani was his wife. Which reminds me, I'd like for you four to come along – see if Cobro taught you anything about investigating a scene." he explained, beckoning them all to follow. "They don't live too far from the cantina."

Nax made a grunt of acknowledgement. "Sure, I don't have anything better to do." he responded, getting up. "Kyra, Arfive, you two in?" he asked, pocketing the credchips. Arfive made a chirping sound of confirmation, while Kyra seemed to be in a daze. "Kyra?"

Kyra immediately snapped out of it. "…Oh, uh, sure thing, Nax." she responded, sounding distracted, before getting up and taking some bags off of the booth seat.

Nax then shook Lexi by her shoulder. "Hey, you awake in there, or are you too drunk to hear me?" he teased, and Lexi shot him an annoyed look, like she was insulted personally. "I'll take that as a yes. You coming?"

Debating it internally, Lexi shut her datapad off and threw it into her coat. "Sure, let's go." she slurred slightly.

"Lead the way." Nax said to Vopa, as he guided the group out of the cantina and to Corbar's residence. "You mentioned Corbar was one of your lieutenants?"

Responding with an affirmative 'uh-huh', Vopa slipped past a drunk Twi'lek being trailed by a green R2 unit. "Corbar and Desani were a pair of smugglers I occasionally ran with before I met your dad. Biggest job I had with them was stealing about three bulk freighters' worth of Ajan Stones for some Intelligence spooks." Vopa retold as it began to drizzle down onto the streets.

"Ajan Stones?" Kyra questioned, shooting Vopa a curious look.

"Semi-precious gems some prospectors dug up on Aja, a backwater the Hutts wouldn't give two damns about if it weren't for them being the most convenient place in the galaxy to get them. Every other known place is in the Unknown Regions, and I don't think I need to tell you how much of a pain navigating _that_ is." he explained, suddenly cracking his fingers. "Lotta people are interested in them since they conduct and amplify solar energy, or something to that effect. I'm not an engineer, or a scientist, so I don't know the specifics." he continued, before shifting into a quieter tone. "What I do know is that any backwater shithole'll pay you a good price for even an impure Stone to get local solar farms going."

"…Noted." Nax replied in a similarly hush tone as they turned down an alleyway. "By the way, how'd you know my dad?"

Vopa gave a sort of happy-sounding huff. "I met your parents, I dunno, maybe two years before you were born?" he began to recollect fondly. "Well, _met_ is a bit of a stretch – Cobro'd actually tracked me down for a bounty some pissant Pantoran politican put on me. About ten grand, I think. He was an alright sort, and he didn't like the client either, so we settled the bounty over a game of Pazaak." Vopa continued to wax nostalgically.

"What happened?" Lexi questioned, and the only response Vopa gave was an amused snort.

"I won, obviously. Ended up sticking with them. For some reason, my smuggling routes usually ended where their bounty targets were. We ended up getting quite a few credits out of our combined work, enough to catch Lostur's attention, so we joined on with his crew a year before the Clone Wars." he said dryly, causing the group to collectively gasp. "This was before he got his death sentences, we thought he was just an exceptionally well off smuggler, which, from a certain point of view, he _was_."

The group passed by a burning astromech shell in a small alcove, with several homeless surrounding it for warmth. "Hey, Vopa!" one of them called out, and Vopa tossed them a credchip seemingly out of the blue. "Thanks!" the man said, waving at Vopa, who simply acknowledged him, continued walking.

"…You mentioned something about my dad not mentioning you, like he did it intentionally. Did something happen between you and my parents?" Nax pressed, raising his voice a little as the rain picked up, and Lexi and Vopa threw up their hoods.

Vopa exhaled slowly, his hot breath blowing out on both sides of his head, before evaporating. "…Yeah, something happened, alright." he said in a suddenly solemn tone. "Lostur'd been getting more viscious, and we went to this planet called Volara. Little jungle planet in the Jangala system in the Rim. Place was tidally locked, so one side of the planet was hellishly hot and humid, and the other was the same, only a little bit cooler. Every damned animal on that shithole would try to kill you. Locals were nice though." Vopa detailed, before catching himself at getting sidetracked. "…Anyways, we find this small village in some valley on the night side of the planet. The _Bantha_ 's sensors had picked up some strange readings, so I took Lostur down planetside with a small team in my VCX. In about a half-hour, the whole village had been razed, we had a bunch of new weapons, and a bunch of bodies that got butchered and sold." he finally finished, much to everyone's shock. "I was waiting in my ship for them to come back, and if you're anything like your parents, Nax, I don't need to tell you how they reacted to finding out I was involved, even if it was just as the getaway pilot."

Nax curled his lip as he glanced off at Kyra. "…Lostur told me my dad cost him a pretty big pile of credits. What happened with that?"

"Well, the two of them came to me after the raid and wanted me to leave with them. My dumb ass said no, since the money was too good. So, what did they do? They melted the whole stockpile of weapons and a bunch of stims and spices we had in storage that Lostur _was_ going to use to pay off a debt to Jabba. Put him deeper in the shitter with Jabba than he already was." Vopa explained, before glancing down the street at the end of the alley. "We're here." he commented simply, turning his head to the right and walking out.

A bit further down the street was a small group of Coru-Hivers in full gear. Immediately, they noticed Vopa and the rest of the group, and wordlessly waved them over. "Hey, boss." one of them with red markings on his helmet said. "The body's in the bedroom. It's, uh, it's not a pretty sight." he revealed, before gesturing with his head to a large transport speeder being guarded by several Hivers. "Corbar's in the speeder. If you need to talk to him, be quick about it, alright? He's had a long day."

"Obviously, we will. I trust you've sent out the probe droids to search for the killer?" Vopa pressed, and the Hiver nodded in response. Satisfied, Vopa turned to Nax. "In that case, I suppose we should talk to Corbar, shouldn't we?" he suggested, eyeing Nax for a response.

In turn, Nax nodded. "It'd be best to see if he knows anything about the killer. Maybe a motive or something." he proposed with relative confidence, earning an approving look from Vopa. Without another word, Nax headed to the speeder and pulled the back doors open, letting himself in.

Corbar was sitting at the back of the bed of the speeder, huddled in the fetal position, his head buried in his knees, completely and utterly silent. Nax took his helmet off and kneeled in front of Corbar. "…Excuse me," Nax said in a quiet tone to not seem as intimidating to Corbar. "I'm here to help find out who killed your wife. I'd like to ask you a few things before I head into your apartment – is that fine with you?"

Slowly lifting his head up from his knees, Corbar gave Nax a distrustful look. His eyes were bloodshot, and his face was wet and red from crying, and his body was shaking all over. Corbar tilted his body to the side to look at something behind him. "He's with me." Nax heard Vopa say calmly, and Corbar relented.

"…Fine." he muttered in a defeated tone, his voice weak, weary, and shook, before he looked back to Nax. "…It probably won't help much, but… what did you want to know?"

Quickly debating which question to ask first, Nax sat down fully. "Can you think of any reason why someone would want to kill your wife?"

Corbar shook his head. "…No…" he weakly answered, burying his head in his knees. "…All of our debts had been paid off years ago, but even then, you can't collect from a dead person…" Corbar continued, silently weeping. "…We don't have any enemies, either – we're not field agents, we do numbers! Who murders someone that runs numbers, for the Emperor's sake?!" he ranted, briefly getting angry, before calming himself. "…Sorry."

Nax pulled out his datapad and quickly wrote down 'No enemies, ran numbers.' before focusing his attention back on Corbar. "Did you see the killer?" he asked, and Corbar shook his head no. Nax wrote down 'Didn't see killer.' as well. "…Now, this may sound insensitive, but did anything stand out to you about the way she was killed?" he continued to press.

Corbar remained silent for a short while, until he began to weep. Nax moved to comfort him, but Corbar backed away. "…The baby…" he muttered, moving into full on sobs. "…the baby…" he repeated, much to Nax's confusion.

Nax was about to ask what Corbar was talking about, but before he could, Vopa pulled him out. "…I think that's all you're gonna be getting out of him, Nax." Vopa dryly advised in a hush tone.

Relenting to Vopa's suggestion, Nax nodded, and headed into the apartment alongside the others. The front entrance had two sets of stairs, the one on the left leading to the basement, while the one on the right led to the living room, as well as the rest of the apartment. Vopa immediately went into the basement, so Nax and Kyra went upstairs, while Lexi helped waddle Arfive up the stairs. "Looks like nothing's missing, so it can't be a robbery gone wrong." Nax noted.

The layout of the apartment was markedly similar to Lexi's. The stairs lead up to the living room, which was largely situated to the right when walking up, while the kitchen was directly in front of you, with a hall on the left that led to the bathroom and bedroom, with a utility closet at the end of the hall. "Stay on your guard – we don't know if the killer's still around." Nax advised as he drew his shotgun. Kyra and Lexi nodded, drawing their CR-2 and A-180, respectively.

Pressing down the hall, they came to the bedroom door on the right. Keeping his shotgun at the ready, Nax mentally prepared himself for whatever was on the other side. He was expecting a skinned body, maybe a few dismembered limbs, and a whole lot of blood. The reality was so much worse.

Laying on the floor in front of the bed was a woman with long, golden blonde hair and deathly pale skin, her face permanently terrified, and her mouth locked in an eternal scream. Her stomach had been cut clean open, and organs were sticking out, as if they had been moved by someone rummaging around inside. As Nax cautiously approached the body, though, he realized just _where_ the cut had been made.

Their stomachs collectively sank and churned at the sight. "I think… I think I'm gonna…" Kyra mumbled, sounding sickly, before running out of the room with her hand over her mouth. Lexi quickly followed after her, leaving Nax and Arfive with the body.

Arfive gave a low, sad trill at the sight. "…Suns, I don't think even Mos Eisley's worst would have done something as awful as this." Nax said as he kneeled down by Desani's body. "…Looks like she was strangled to death. Arfive, can you gimme your blacklight?"

On command, Arfive turned his blacklight on, shining it on Desani's neck. To Nax's surprise, however, there were no fingerprints. "Looks like whoever killed her was wearing gloves." he noted, before taking a closer look at her neck. "…Or it was an aug without synthskin on. Look at how crushed her neck is. Only thing I can think of that could feasibly do that kind of damage would be either a Wookie or an aug." Nax added on, before noticing a small stream of blood coming from both of Desani's nostrils.

Deciding that the body likely didn't have much else for him, Nax stood up and began to look around the room. The window that led to the fire escape was open – no, it was smashed outward. There weren't any shards of glass in the room. In the pale light that was leaking into the room, Nax spotted a long, thin tendril sitting in a pool of yellow blood. Hesitantly, he picked it up and examined it.

There was a small hole on the pointed end of the tendril, with a small amount of red blood dripping out of it. Out of the corner of his eye, Nax spotted a sharp combat knife, fresh with the same yellow blood as the tendril, with some red mixed in. There was also a small amount of pink flesh scattered along the blade. Nax heard the door open behind him, and he turned to see Vopa in the doorway, staring blank at Desani's body. Silently, he mouthed a curse, and then looked to Nax. "…Did you find anything?" he asked, and Nax showed him the tendril. Taking it from Nax, Vopa began to examine it. "…Son of a bitch." he breathed.

"What?" Nax responded, expecting Vopa to know something that he didn't.

"This is an Anzat's tendril." Vopa revealed, prodding at the tendril.

The name had sounded familiar to Nax, but he wasn't sure of the connotations. "An Anzat?" he questioned, and Vopa gave him a sympathetic look.

"Aliens that look more or less human, but once they get close to you, they stick one of these," he explained, presenting the tendril, "…up your nose and suck your brains out. It's how they feed. They only go after 'strong' meals, whatever the hell that means, usually after stalking them for a while." he finished, before looking at Desani's bloody nose. "…Judging by her nose, I'd say that's exactly what happened. He must have gotten into the apartment, either through the front door or one of the kitchen windows, came in here, and tried to feed on Desani. She probably fought back and managed to cut one of his tendrils off, but…" he trailed, his gaze drifting over to her body.

"…But that doesn't explain what he wanted with the baby." Nax remarked. "If he wanted it to feed, wouldn't he be better off feeding on another adult?" he opined, cautiously looking out the broken window as the draft from airspeeder traffic above made the curtains flow.

Vopa shook his head in frustration. "Maybe, but if you think about it, a baby's a growing life. Maybe that gives them more energy or something, I don't know." he reasoned, sounding sullen. "Nor do I want to. Did you find anything else?"

"Window got smashed out towards the fire escape. Whoever killed her probably got away through the alley." Nax deduced, poking his head out the window. "Looks like he was bleeding. There's more yellow blood going down these stairs."

"Go ahead and follow that. I'll stay here and look for anything else." Vopa said, and without another word, Nax climbed out the window. Quickly moving down the fire escape, Nax followed the trail, noticing intermittent spots of red blood. He got down into the alley, moving at a fast pace until he got about halfway from the fire escape to the street, when the trail turned towards a dumpster and then stopped.

Taking a closer look at the dumpster, he saw blood dripping down the side of the dumpster, collecting into a slowly growing pool. Getting a sinking feeling in his stomach, Nax reluctantly opened the top of the dumpster, and immediately regretted it at the sight of what greeted him.

Slamming the top of the dumpster shot back down, Nax couldn't have thrown himself to the side any faster if he had tried. Dry heaving and fighting back the urge to full-on vomit, Nax steadied himself. What an awful thing to have to see.

"…Hey…" a man's raspy voice quietly eked out behind Nax. "…You saw it, didn't you?" he asked, before developing a small cackle. "You saw the baby, didn't you?" he repeated, waiting on Nax's response.

"…No shit, I saw it. To think that someone would do such a thing…" Nax replied in between heaves, and then the man began to cackle.

"You saw it! You saw it!" he exclaimed, audibly jumping. "You saw it, and now you're marked!" the man continued to rant, on the verge of shouting now. That caught Nax's attention.

"…Marked?" Nax questioned, looking behind him to see the man. He was short, probably about five foot five? He looked – and smelled, like he hadn't bathed in days, and he was visibly under the influence of stims and spices.

"Marked! By the Hive Butcher!" the man raved. "He'll stop at nothing to suck the life from you, now that you've been marked!" he yelled, continuing on his tirade of chem-induced madness.

Confused, Nax looked down the alleyway, and saw a shadow moving in the dim light of one of the windows of an abandoned building. The shadow seemed to be looking at Nax, as if studying him, and then looking back at something else, seeming to write, and then it shifted back to observing Nax. This process repeated at least three times in the ten second window Nax had to observe it, before finally, the figure realized that Nax could see it, and promptly panicked, disappearing from sight.

It took an instant for Nax to connect the dots. "Like hell you're getting away that easy!" he shouted, suddenly having regained his energy. As he dashed out of the alleyway into oncoming landspeeder traffic, Nax jumped onto the hood of one speeder, ignored the protests of its driver, and jumped lanes onto another, before jumping back onto the sidewalk opposite the alley.

Barreling through a small crowd of bystanders, Nax forced the old hinge door open with relative ease, and was confronted with a massive stairwell. He could hear faint, rapid footfalls, and could see a shadow moving up the stairs, presumably to the roof. Raising his left arm to the ceiling, Nax pressed one of the buttons on his gauntlet, and the whipcord shot out. For a moment, Nax thought it would fall back down, but thankfully, it wrapped itself around one of the guardrail posts. Activating the internal winch on the bracer, Nax pressed himself up against a support pillar, beginning his comparatively fast ascent to the roof. He could still hear the stomping from the person he had seen in the window, but it sounded like he had stopped going further up, it sounded more like he had gone up three, no, four floors, before ducking into the rest of the building. As Nax climbed, he felt the urge to taunt the killer, but held his tongue.

Coming up to the sixth floor, Nax pulled himself over the railing and readied his shotgun. Spotting a hinge door slightly ajar, he positioned himself so that he could move with the door as he cleared it. Cautiously, Nax opened the door slowly, and saw the hallway it led to in a major state of disarray. Ceiling lights were either out or smashed against the floor, with a few of them flickering still, barely hanging on by their wiring. Garbage littered the carpet, although it looked to have been disturbed recently.

Keeping his guard up, Nax jimmied the handles of each and every door, with every single one of them being locked tight. Brushing past light hanging out of an exposed ceiling panel, it flickered when his shoulder bumped it, Nax moved to the last door in the hallway, Trying the handle, it surprisingly opened, and ever on edge, Nax moved in, clearing the apartment.

The closet by the door was empty save for a few jackets and longcoats, while the bathroom to the right had no door to speak of, letting Nax see a skeleton wearing tattered clothes on the floor by the rusted sink. The apartment's automatic lighting failed to properly kick in, so Nax grabbed the glowrod from his duster and haphazardly attached it to the shotgun. Aside from the bathroom and closet, the rest of the apartment was just one big room, with what would have been the kitchen and living room being stripped bare of all furniture, while a small staircase in the living room leading to an alcove with the only spot for a bed. The living room window was open, letting the artificial breeze blow into the tattered curtains.

Confused, Nax eased up a little. "…Where the hell did he go?" he mumbled under his breath, taking the glowrod into his left hand. The apartment was completely empty save for Nax. He must have gotten out through the window, but if every other door in this part of the building was locked, why was this one open?

Poking his head out the window to see if there was any way he could have feasibly gotten down, Nax was surprised to find that it was a straight drop to the street level – no catwalk or fire escape to climb down from. Suddenly, Nax remembered something.

The killer was an Anzat.

A species that liked to stalk their prey.

The only logical reason that this apartment's door was open was _because the killer wanted him here_. Mentally tuning himself out of the background noise, Nax could hear slow, deliberate footsteps approaching him from behind. The killer even made a hushed 'wryyy' to rattle Nax.

He didn't have much time to think of a plan, so Nax did what he knew best.

As soon as the killer was within an arm's reach, Nax swung around harder than he thought possible and punched the killer square in the jaw, sending him flying back into the decayed couch. Re-readying his shotgun, Nax pointed it at the killer's chest, racked the pump, and prepared to clamp down on the trigger.

Except he never pulled the trigger. The killer had his hand outstretched, and no matter how much Nax wanted to or tried, he just could not pull the trigger. Slowly the killer pulled himself up out of the debris, and began to approach Nax. "Five hundred years I have lived. I have seen countless wars, crises, invasions, and deaths. I have consumed many." he said in a slow, deliberate manner, his voice chilling Nax to the bone. "Yet, not once have I had a Mandalorian." he taunted, as a tendril appeared from underneath his hood, waving and curling in the air.

Nax was completely frozen in place. Even though he was screaming at himself to run as far away as physically possible, his body just would not listen to him. The killer's tendril crept ever closer to Nax's nose, until it was at his nostrils. The killer flashed a sick, manic smile as the tendril coiled back, prepared to strike, and he opened his mouth to speak, only to be interrupted by Kyra shouting.

"The crash came from up here!" she shouted, and he could hear three more people aside from her stomping around. The killer cursed under his breath, and placed his index finger to Nax's temple.

"You will now fall asleep. You will not remember what I look like when you wake up." he said in his ever calm tone of voice. Nax unwillingly nodded, before promptly collapsing into the destroyed couch. Deciding that it would be best to stir the pot while he had the chance, the killer slipped a transponder marked with Ascendancy codes into Nax's duster, before fleeing through the window without further theatrics.

Kyra and Lexi burst into the apartment, Vopa not falling far behind the two of them. Immediately the girls rushed to Nax's side, concerned for him. "Nax, wake up!" Kyra pleaded, shaking Nax, although to no avail. Lexi put her ear to Nax's chest, listened for a while, and then pulled away.

"…He's alive and breathing, thankfully." she said, relieved that he wasn't dead.

Suddenly, Nax reached out and grabbed Lexi's hand, pulling himself out of the destroyed couch. "Kinda wish I wasn't. My head's killing me." he complained, deadpan, even as Kyra latched on to him and practically refused to let go. "…Feels like I've downed an entire cask of that pisswater dad called whiskey, actually." Nax complained as Arfive trundled his way in leisurely.

Vopa immediately moved to keep Nax supported, and began to check him for wounds. Thankfully finding nothing, Vopa turned his attention to Nax himself, rather than his nonexistent wounds. "You alright, kid? What the hell happened?"

Nax gave a discomforted groan as he got out of the ruined couch fully. "…I was in the alley checking out the blood trail, which led into the dumpster. I'd prefer blocking out what I saw right now, but some old spicehead comes up behind me and starts rambling to me about me being marked. I take one look across the street, and I see someone stalking me, like he's taking notes or some shit." Nax explained, rubbing his arm a little bit. "He notices me, and then starts to run the hell away. I chase after him and found him up here. Or, well, he had me – he snuck behind me from that exposed ceiling panel. I punched him, broke the couch, and was about to finish him off."

"And then what happened?" Lexi questioned as she managed to pry Kyra from Nax's arm.

Nax shook his head in disbelief. "I don't know how to describe it. He held his hand out, and I just… couldn't shoot him. I _wanted_ to, but my finger just wouldn't pull the trigger." he continued to explain. "…He gets up, and then he puts his hands to my face and mumbles about never having had a Mandalorian before. And then, the tendril came out of the side of his face – would've gone into my head had you not yelled for me, Kyra." he said, shifting his gaze to her. In response, she immediately smiled and latched right back on to Nax, much to Lexi's frustration. "No idea where he went."

"…Sounds like Anzat telepathy. What'd he look like?" Vopa questioned, shifting glances between Nax, Lexi, and Kyra.

Responding with a shrug, Nax threw his arm around Kyra's back to pull her closer in appreciation for saving him. "Dunno. Every time I try and think of his face, I get a huge headache, and my mind's like a censor. It blocks his face out. The only thing I _can_ say is that he was about my height." Nax responded. He didn't know it, but Kyra's heart skipped a beat.

Vopa pondered his response for a few seconds, and then snapped his fingers quickly. "What about your helmet?"

"What about it?"

"Doesn't it record things?" Vopa asked, although it sounded like he may have been misremembering something Cobro had done to the armor.

Scratching his neck, Nax nodded. "…Yeah, but I didn't have it on. I left it in the ship, didn't I?" he answered, and Arfive gave an affirmative, if disgruntled beep. "Yeah, it's in the cockpit."

Vopa facepalmed. "…Of course you did. Just our luck." he said, annoyed, before moving for the door. "Well, no helping it now. Let's get a move on, yeah?"

The group began to leave, with Nax at the back. Warily, he turned back to face the open window, even as Kyra yanked him by the arm to leave. He just couldn't shake the feeling that the killer didn't really run away.

* * *

Ash pre-emptively got off the walls of the turbolift before the doors even slid open. On the way back to the Church, she had briefly skimmed through the unlocked datapads, while ignoring the protected ones. Most of the datapads were technical blueprints given to Sti by the Ascendancy, while others were logs of business transactions and day to day operations. Fairly boring stuff, but the Ascendant would have her head if she didn't bring everything back.

Although, the one thing of note on one of the personal logs was a name that kept coming up - enough to pique Ash's curiosity; Reika Misaki. She had no idea who this Reika person was, but they were likely an associate of Sti's.

After what seemed like an eternity, the turbolift doors opened, and Ash headed through. The Grand Ascendant was on his throne, still plugged in, and appeared as if he were disinterested. Immediately, Ash took a knee. "You've returned." he said, his synthetic voice seeming to only add to how bored he sounded. "I trust you've taken care of Sti?" the Ascendant questioned, as the Vanguards pressed their electrostaves against the floor, causing them to spark up in case Ash attacked.

Ash nodded, and very slowly, took the bag with the datapads off of her back and held it out. A large metallic wire that had been laying on the ground near the Ascendant suddenly sprang to life and moved to her, and it grasped the bag, bringing it to the Ascendant, who began to scan it with his implants. "Very good, Ash. It seems you _are_ loyal to us after all. I'll have the scribes sift through this bag later. For now, however…" he trailed, before getting up and slowly approaching Ash, and the Vanguards shut their electrostaves off. "…You remember the oath you took, yes?" he questioned, and Ash nodded once.

"According to our station, all without exception." Ash said in a monotone voice, completely straight faced.

The white-purple blade of an industrial plasma cutter shot out from the Ascendant's right wrist, and he placed it above her right shoulder as it gave off superheated crackles against the dust in the air.

"On the blood of our fathers, on the blood of our sons." Ash continued. "We swear to uphold the Ascendancy – even to our dying breath." she finished, and the Ascendant switched the shoulder the blade was hovering over, before raising it and deactivating it.

"You have been given a rare second chance, Voto. Do not waste it." the Ascendant said, with a sense of finality in his words. Ash said nothing in response, only choosing to deepen her kneel in respect.

* * *

' **Till next time.**

 **-Tweak**


	14. Familiar Faces

**Merry Christmas, you filthy animals!**

 **I had a small segment here about TROS, but the movie has no Duel of the Fates/Battle of the Heroes, so it's utter fucking garbage anyways.**

 **Anyways, reviews.**

 **To PoofyOhio: I admit, I actually couldn't think of a proper oath that would fit the Ascendancy's Arbiters better than the Covenant oath, but given that the MCC is a thing on PC now, I thought "fuck it". Although, on second review, I** _ **did**_ **write an oath for the Arbiters back when I introduced Ash, but I can chalk that up to a different one.**

 **Read and review.**

* * *

Ash reached the door to her quarters. Holding her fingertips out, she linked with the door's interface, transmitted her codes, and swiped her hand to the right, the door following her motions. Stepping in, she shut the door behind her and turned the light on.

The room was basically barren save for a bed, a dresser, and a small tech-shrine for offerings or prayer. Dropping her belt and bags to the floor, Ash hopped onto the bed and traced her finger along the wall, just above the headrest. Finding a nearly microscopic indent, she moved her finger slightly to the left, and pushed in. A small rectangular shape in the wall pushed in with her finger, before swinging out slowly, revealing a wall safe.

Inside was an ornate lighter, a datapad, and a few incensed candles. She gathered the candles and the lighter, but left the datapad, before shutting the safe again. Carefully, she moved to the tech-shrine, setting the candles up in a V formation facing outwards from the shrine. Flicking the lighter open, the flame sputtered, if only for a moment, and Ash began to individually light all of the candles as carefully as she could, in the specific order ordained in scripture. Once they were all lit, she got back up and turned the light in the room off, before returning to the shrine, this time getting on her knees, staring at her mask in the shrine's mirror.

Ash stared at the mask for what felt like hours, despite mere minutes passing. She kept watching the scanner on the mask spin, and spin, and spin in a near-dead haze as her mind seemed to shut off on its own. Setting the still-lit lighter in front of her, Ash, with her hands visibly shaking, slowly reached up to her viewplate and hit the three releases. There was a high-pitched squeal as the mask detached, and, taking it into her hands, she took it off. Flipping it around, she stared the object of her nightmares dead on. Every single thing she feared would happen to her was encapsulated by that mask and the hands holding it. Her grip tightened, if only for a moment, before she set the mask against the shrine vertically.

Ash quietly sighed, before pulling her left sleeve back, revealing three scars running horizontal along her arm. Three sins she had committed in the past, one wound for each. An Arbiter committing sins worthy of marking was controversial, even in the Ascendancy's infancy. Removing her knife from its sheath, she placed the blade to the right of the scars, and breathed in. "Holy Maker, forgive me, for I have deviated from your Grand Design." Ash said in a quiet, solemn voice. "In my arrogance, I rejected your Design and abandoned the Ascendancy." she admitted, making two fresh cuts, not even wincing from the pain. The second cut was slashed through the first four to mark it as a set. "I ignored the Grand Ascendant's guidance and warnings, and continued down my self-destructive path." Ash continued, making two additional cuts. "I joined a cause that I was not destined for, and you made those I had joined up with pay the ultimate price for my arrogance." she continued, seemingly in a trance as she cut twice again. "You let me survive to see what my deviation had caused, and left me scarred and deformed in both mind and body as punishment." she finished, making two final cuts, the first one marking another set.

She dipped her right hand into the growing pool of blood. "Holy Maker, I offer my blood to you in repentance for my sins." she said, before pressing her bloody hand against her mask. "I seal this prayer in my own flesh and blood." Ash finally finished, letting go a breath that she didn't even know she was holding. Quickly, she grabbed a cloth from the shrine and wiped her arm down, before grabbing the lighter and sticking the flame to the open wounds to cauterize them. The pain was only temporary - the scars would be with her until the day she died, and now that her prayer for penance had been sealed in her own blood, she would voluntarily take her own life if that seal were to break.

As she finished cauterizing her wounds, Ash caught a glimpse of someone in the mirror. Someone she didn't recognize. She looked like a broken shell of a woman that had gone through hell and back – her green eyes were devoid of life, while her expression was blank and dead. Her blonde hair no longer made her seem energetic and friendly, and now only served to add to the tragedy of the woman's life. Wordlessly, Ash picked her mask up and put it back on, and slowly, she took the place of the woman.

Ash closed her eyes, and began to hum a hymn she had been taught as a child. As she hummed, she felt a familiar presence behind her, but she didn't open her eyes. It was Nevda, opening a fresh pack of bandages. Slowly, Nevda pulled Ash's sleeve back where she had cut her sins, and wrapped the bandages around her arm as tight as she could. "I thought I told you to stop doing this, Ash." Nevda chided in a disappointing manner, but Ash didn't respond. Instead, she kept humming, even as Nevda slightly jerked her around.

Sighing as she finished wrapping the bandage, Nevda sat down behind Ash, and caught a glimpse of the bloody handprint on Ash's mask. "…You didn't." she said suddenly, shocked.

Ash slowly finished her hymn, and breathed in. "I did, Nev." she coldly replied. "I have nothing else for me except for the Ascendancy. A blood pact to ensure that if I falter, _even for a moment_ , I will take my own life."

Nevda remained silent for a time, and the two of them sat there together, a peaceful, understanding silence forming between the two of them, as if nothing had changed in the years Ash had been gone. Not even a bit. "I assume you're going to want to talk about what I've been doing all this time?" Ash said, maintaining her laser focus on the altar.

Nevda briefly faltered. "I… yes, that was on my mind, Ash." she stammered, if only briefly.

For the first time that day, Ash cracked a smile. "Over a cup of Nubian Nectar, I presume?" she teased, and Nevda nodded. "…Well, I'd make it myself, but I'm still getting used to my cybernetics, and my hands are too shaky. Fetch the kettle, would you?"

After a short time, Nevda and Ash were enjoying their tea together, just like they had done so many cycles ago. Ash took her mask off and set it aside, and immediately took a sip of the tea from her cup. "…It's sweeter than I remember." she commented.

"…Ash?" Nevda said as she set her cup down, and Ash paused to wait on what Nevda had to say. "…Why did you leave in the first place?"

Ash carefully set her tea down and locked eyes with Nevda. "…The Grand Ascendant and I had a… disagreement." she carefully responded, treading lightly with her words. "Mostly, it was regarding the Empire. In my blissful arrogance, I believed that the Empire would destroy the Ascendancy, however, the Grand Ascendant disagreed." Ash explained. "I was shunned over what I believed was a legitimate threat, and, feeling outcast and unwanted, fled the Ascendancy."

Nevda took another sip of her tea. "What happened then?"

Ash closed her eyes, her expression wistful and forlorn. "I fled to the Outer Rim. Somehow, I wound up with a group of insurgents fighting the Empire, and, looking for a new cause to take up, I joined on with them." she reminisced, sounding even more upset than she looked. "At a time when I thought the Ascendancy, the only family I had ever known, had thrown me to the wayside, they took me in and treated me like one of their own. I never felt malice, or cold indifference from them."

Nevda remained silent as she took this in. "…What made you come back, Ash?"

Ash finished her tea wordlessly, and locked eyes again with Nevda. "The Empire discovered our base. We couldn't evacuate in time, so we held out for as long as we could. Aside from myself, only two other people I know of could still be alive, but I doubt that."

Cocking her head and raising an eyebrow, Nevda finished her tea off. "Who were these two survivors?"

"Bounty hunter and his girlfriend. The hunter was definitely your type, Nev – tall, strong enough to lift you with one arm, ruggedly handsome. His girlfriend wasn't too bad looking either, but something about her told me that she wasn't fit for the life we lead." Ash continued, shifting her legs to be crossed so that she was more comfortable. "After the raid, I hauled myself to a cyberneticist and finally got wired up – lucky I didn't bleed out or get an infection."

Nevda looked at Ash with concern. "…But that doesn't answer my question."

Ash shook her head. "…No, it doesn't." she said with a lightly exasperated tone. "I figured that with the way the Ascendancy probably still viewed me, I'd either be let back in, or would be shot dead. The way I saw it, either option was good. No cause to fight for, wanted criminal by the Empire that _should_ be dead, and everyone I know has either rejected me or in the ground? Might as well have killed myself at that point."

Nevda silenced herself as she considered Ash's words. "…You've changed, Ash." she simply said, a hint of surprise in her voice.

"War is hell, Nevda." Ash coldly replied. "I made the foolish mistake of fighting in one that I had no place in." she continued, brandishing her knife, intentionally showing the carving on the side to Nevda, before sheathing it. "…I think that's enough about me, Nev. How've you been keeping up these past few years?"

Nevda slowly nodded in agreement. "I haven't really changed much, Ash. I'm still an Arbitrator, but I never stuck with any one Arbiter like I did with you." she answered, brushing her bangs out of her face. "I have become something of a Scribe, though."

Ash's eyes widened a little bit. "That's a surprise. I thought Master Scribe Tektus thought you were worthless as one?"

Nevda chuckled a little bit. "He did. Or at least, that was until I published some personal thoughts of mine I wrote during downtime that a surprising number of the Ascendancy agreed with. I'm not gonna finalize as a Scribe, though – I like my body too much." Nevda said in a half-joking manner, before she glanced at the corner of her vision. "Oh, I've just noticed the time. I've got to be in the sim pods in five minutes." she said, silently cursing at herself as she got up.

Ash waved her off without a second thought. "Go on, Nevda. Don't let me keep you." she said in a reassuring manner.

Nevda turned to leave, but before she did, she pulled a bag off of her back. "One last thing, Ash." she said, carefully setting the bag on the floor. "I've got a little welcome back gift for you." Nevda finished, before quickly moving for the door. "…It's good to have you back, Ash." she quietly murmured, before heading out.

Curious, Ash pulled the bag over to herself and opened the top flap. Inside was a small, deactivated droid that was intensely familiar to her. Once Ash pulled it out of the bag, she realized it was an ID9 unit.

Specifically, it was Sidewinder, her personal servitor droid that she had accidentally left behind when she fled the Ascendancy so many years ago. She pulled the inactive droid into the tightest hug she could muster, a flood of emotions pouring out in just one simple gesture.

Ash released the droid from her hug, and reached to power it on, before realizing something. The batteries were likely long dead. Peeking into the bag again, she pulled out a fresh droid battery and a screwdriver that Nevda had left her. Turning Sidewinder over, she unscrewed the back to reveal the empty battery inside. Removing it and setting it aside to throw away, Ash took the new battery, placed it inside of Sidewinder, and screwed the panel back in. She then turned the droid back over and powered him up.

It took a moment, but Sidewinder's repulsors kicked in, and he automatically flew out of Ash's hands, hovering in front of her face. His photoreceptor curiously examined her, and Sidewinder flew in closer. "Hey, Sidewinder." Ash said in a voice one would use as if talking to a pet. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

Sidewinder's photoreceptor _lit up_ in excitement, and he immediately began to nuzzle his master's face, causing Ash to laugh in response, petting him. "Sorry about leaving you behind, Sidewinder. I was so mad when I left the Ascendancy I completely forgot about you, and by the time I remembered, it was too late to come back." Ash apologized as she gave the droid plenty of attention. Sidewinder simply chirped at her in encoded binary, glad to have her back. "And I missed you too, buddy." Ash responded. "Ready to get back to work?"

Sidewinder responded with several happy chirps as he flew behind Ash and latched onto her back with his legs, earing a laugh from Ash. "Aww, you really did miss me!" she said, half-teasing as she put her mask back on. "Let's go visit Nevda in the sim pods, Sidewinder."

* * *

"Breach the airlock when you're ready." the instructor said in Nevda's ear. Before he had even finished, the airlock had been blasted open and Nevda had already shot the two crew members. The hullbreach was quickly sealed by the secondary emergency doors, and Nevda dashed towards the bridge. Quickly opening the door to the communications room, she threw a flash grenade in, shut the door, waited three seconds, and then ran in, shooting the four crew members inside down with ease.

Nevda then sprinted diagonally across the room and out the other door, shooting two shots into another patrol and killing both of them, making a mad dash for the bridge of the ship. As soon as she reached the bridge, she snapped to her right and shot the captain in the head, and the simulation immediately fell apart, leaving her in the simulated vacuum of space. "How'd I do?" Nevda asked.

"Fourteen-point-four-five seconds." the instructor answered, and Nevda sighed.

"Let's run it again, then."

"Negative, someone else is waiting to run this simulation."

Nevda was confused, but before she could protest, she was booted out into an overhead view of the corvette, with the roof of the rooms exposed to space, like a doll house. Nevda immediately recognized the new runner as Ash, and this time, the instructor didn't even have time to start speaking before she breached the corvette.

Ash ignored the patrol that was in front of the airlock and immediately ran to the communications room. She primed a thermal detonator, ran in, threw it in the corner where three of the crew members were, shot the fourth in the head, and ran out before the detonator blew up. She then shot the two patrolling crew members as she was running to the bridge, hopped over their bodies, and blasted the captain in the head with an overcharged shot. The simulation immediately ended.

"Final time; seven-point-three-two seconds." the instructor commented.

"Not bad." Ash said to herself, before turning to Nevda. "Hey, Nev." she greeted casually, as if she hadn't just blazed through one of their simulations like it was nothing.

Nevda had unconsciously left her jaw hanging open. "…That was…" she said, robbed of her words.

"Amazing? Incredible?" Ash egged, stroking her own ego.

"I was going to say batshit insane, but let's go with that, yeah." Nevda said, a little bit miffed that Ash had interrupted her runs. "Why are you even here? I thought you would've been asleep by now."

Ash smiled at Nevda. "Just wanted to thank you for bringing me Sidewinder back. Would've forgotten about him otherwise." she answered, before pulling up a holographic scoreboard. "That, and I want to check the times for the Corvette sim." she continued, flicking to the top of the board. There was a long list of Ash's old names before she got to the top, with her top time of 6.6 seconds now in second place, dethroned by someone named Decker. "Who's this?" Ash asked, and Nevda moved over to see.

"That'd be Decker, one of the apprentice Scribes. You're welcome to practice the run and beat his time." Nevda offered, trying to prod Ash into a rivalry with Decker.

Ash shook her head. "I think I'm good for now – just wanted to pop in and show off. 'Night, Nev."

"'Night, Ash." Nevda replied as Ash's avatar disintegrated.

* * *

Ash found herself looking through a pair of macrobinoculars across the wide open desert of a hauntingly familiar world. It was basically pitch black out. "See anything?" her raven haired companion asked, scanning as best she could with her rifle.

"Can't see shit." Ash replied sardonically. "Except for a few banthas."

Her companion let off a light laugh. "I see two scout troopers staring at us, to the northeast." she said to Ash, and she pivoted practically on her heels to see that yes, there was a scout trooper team staring at them through a pair of macrobinoculars and a rifle.

"Think you can make the shot?" Ash asked.

"Think? I _know_ I can." her companion replied, readying to shoot their sniper clean in the head. She breathed in, counted down from five, and then pulled the trigger. The explosive force from the gunshot made Ash wince, and she now found herself standing in the middle of the burning compound she used to call home.

Stormtroopers were patrolling the area, burning buildings and setting some demolition charges. Saber tanks sat outside the ruined walls, and the dead were being piled up. The smoke was so thick, Ash could barely see, let alone breathe, with the setting suns producing an ominous orange glow through the smoke. A trooper stared directly at her, but did nothing, while the others milled around, too concerned with their orders to even notice Ash's presence.

Tempted to draw her pistol and shoot the trooper, Ash decided against it. He hadn't alerted the others to her presence. Pressing through the smoke towards the back of the base, Ash climbed up a set of stairs to the second level of the base, and headed inside one of the structures built into the canyon walls. The door automatically opened for her, and, laying up against the wall with her arms cradling her rifle, was her same raven-haired companion, bleeding profusely from her chest. Ash reached out to help, but the sudden sound of a blaster being charged behind her head put an end to that.

When Ash turned, she only caught a glimpse of the stormtrooper behind her, as he pulled the trigger back and shot her in the head.

* * *

Shooting up out of bed with a start, Ash had to catch her breath, causing Sidewinder to spring out of his resting state and hover around Ash as she calmed herself. She swallowed once, and then twice, and then a third time as her breathing finally slowed. Sidewinder gave her a worried 'bwoo dwee?', and Ash scratched his dome. "…I'm fine, Sidewinder. It was just a bad dream." she said in a comforting way.

Sidewinder gave her a low 'bwooo' in response, before pulling away and creating a hologram of the Grand Ascendant. "Voto, something important has come up regarding our security, and it requires your skillset. See me as soon as you can." the recording said, before fizzling out. Ash didn't protest her new orders, though. Instead, she simply brushed the hair out of her face, got out of bed, and began to get ready for the day.

One hour later, and Ash was riding the turbolift to the Ascendant's throne room, with Sidewinder hovering by her shoulder. The lift doors slid open, and the Vanguards pounded their electrostaves against the floor to signal her arrival. Ash approached the Ascendant's throne, and then kneeled, bowing her head. "I am answering your summons, Grand Ascendant." Ash said humbly, and Sidewinder tilted his chassis to mimic a bow.

One of the Ascendant's tendrils shot up and produced a datapad, presenting it to Ash. "The Scribes have finished decrypting the datapads you brought back from Sti's workshop. The information they found was… concerning, to say the least." the Ascendant revealed. "A small amount of IFF transponders belonging to our vehicle maintenance teams have been smuggled out of the Church by Luddic sympathizers over the past several months, usually in tiny amounts so as to not raise suspicion from the Scribes. This datapad contains the locations of four of these transponders, which we believe to be in the most… precarious situations of the stolen batches."

Ash took the datapad from the tendril and gave it a quick scan, and Sidewinder floated over to look with her. "…These are all over the planet." Ash noted simply, and Sidewinder gave off a questioning 'dwo-wee?'

The Ascendant looked to Sidewinder. "You will be ferried around by Nevda in her CloakShape. She has already been briefed on the transponder locations, and has been in the hangar all morning preparing her ship. You are expected to be out for several days, but do not come back until all four have been recovered so that they may be destroyed." the Grand Ascendant continued. "Any questions?" he asked expectantly, and Ash shook her head no. "Dismissed."

Without further ceremony, Ash turned back to the turbolift with Sidewinder, pushed the button, and went down to the main entry hall. Sidewinder eyed Ash curiously in the turbolift, letting off a 'bwo-dwee' to ask a question to her. Ash glanced at her droid from behind her mask. "I don't know how the Ascendancy let something like this slip, Sidewinder. Scribes are usually pretty uptight about logistics." she mused, more than a little confused. Sidewinder gave her an amused 'bwee-bwee', and Ash smiled behind her mask at his comment.

The turbolift finally came to the main entrance hall, and the doors slid open, letting Ash and Sidewinder out into the forming crowd for the morning sermon. However, the pair of them opted to sidestep the crowd entirely, shimmying out of the way towards one of the turbolifts at the end of the hallway that led down to the hangar. They had to push their way through, but they otherwise were not trampled. Getting into the turbolift that led to the hangar, they went down several levels as the telltale sound of fusion cutters, labor droids, and ships taking off began to echo through the walls into the turbolift chamber.

At last, the lift came to a stop, and the doors opened, revealing a moderately sized shuttle just pulling in, loaded either with cargo or more of the faithful for the sermon. To the side, Ash saw an offloading freighter, but no Nevda, or her CloakShape. Switching on her IFF transponder, Nevda's 'ANF29' tag quickly showed up on her viewplate, towards the back of the hangar, behind the freighter. Sidewinder practically bolted to the tag, his 'SNDR' tag growing slightly distant, before he disappeared behind the freighter where Nevda was.

As Ash slipped under the hulk of the freighter, she caught sight of Sidewinder teasing Nevda, who was dancing around the droid and trying to swat him away before he damaged something. With little effort, Ash snuck up behind the irritated Nevda, and tapped her on the shoulder. She turned, took one glance at Ash, and then calmed down, finally losing interest in Sidewinder. "You already know what you're supposed to be doing, right, Nev?" Ash questioned, and Nevda nodded. Turning her attention to Nevda's CloakShape, Ash caused her mask to produce a holographic question mark. "This is a CloakShape?" she questioned, and Nevda turned to her ship, standing proudly.

"Hard to believe, isn't it? She was a bitch to retool, Ash." Nevda said, tracing along the notably thinner, more angular frame. "This was the first thing I did to her – stripping the hull and cutting the size down. Rebuilt the whole thing to look smaller on sensors, no bigger than a pleasure craft." she explained, and to her credit, the CloakShape did have a notably smaller profile. Angled plating and dark paint certainly did help to give the aged ship a more 'modern' look to it. "After that, I went to Bracca and stole a whole bunch of parts from the scrapyards there. I took the engines from two Actis interceptors, and the shield generator, weapons, and powerplant from an ARC-170. I even managed to hack together a functional turret on the top from the ARC's rear gun, and I _still_ have enough space to fit in new sensor equipment, a hyperdrive, bigger fuel tanks, and a tiny living quarters!" Nevda boasted, causing Ash to whistle, impressed with her work.

With a flick of her wrist, Nevda caused the cockpit to swing out, and the three of them got in. Even the interior had been overhauled, leaning more towards pilot comfort and access rather than spartan utilitarianism like the stock cockpit on a CloakShape. "…In other words…" Nevda said, continuing her boast. "She can out-turn most interceptors, out-run a TIE, out-gun most heavy fighters, and still take the punishment from one, without showing up on sensors as much bigger than a Cloud Car." she said, finally finishing her boast. Sidewinder let off a questioning 'dwee-dwoo', and Nevda looked offended. "Of course she has a name! I call her the _Heretek's Bane_ – the single biggest credit sink of my life, or at least, next to my augs, she is." she said with a light laugh, before sitting in the pilot's chair, while Ash sat in the copilot's chair.

Sidewinder hovered between the two of them, and projected a hologram of Coruscant, with five yellow dots marked all around the planet, and one green one to represent their current position. Examining the hologram, tapped the one on the surface, and the hologram shifted to an intel screen.

One transponder was located in Coru-Hiver territory, another in Aug Family territory, one of the Union's many fractured elements, another was in a no man's land between the Black Sun and the Coru-Hivers, and the fourth was in Hutt controlled territory. Fun times.

"Which do you want to go after first, Ash? We've got the whole damn week ahead of us." Nevda asked, kicking back in her chair, surprisingly casual for the mission they'd been assigned to.

After internal debate, Ash finally decided. "…Let's go for the one between the Sun and the Hivers, first."

Nevda smiled and nodded at her partner, before taking her scomp link and plugging it in to the pilot's console, beginning the pre-flight check. A few minutes later, and they were off, heading to the one place that Hiver and Sun territory met – the Kluun sector.

* * *

The Kluun sector was something of an oddity in regard to Coruscant's underworld, especially in the context of 1313. Officially, the sector was completely lawful, with minimal crime and total Imperial loyalty. In actuality, the sector was a sort of neutral zone between the Black Sun and the Coru-Hivers, with a little bit of Hutt influence here and there. Policing was handled by Tiandong Security Solutions, operating on their no bantha shit policy of 'no gang warfare on our turf'. More than a few Sun heads had to be cut for the message to get across, and the Coru-Hivers backed down accordingly.

The end result was a sector that shined brighter than any other on the level, with just as many casinos and tourist traps as Cloud City, The Wheel, and Canto Bight, maybe even more. The lack of major gang control meant that the Suns. Hutts, and Hivers had to resort to less noisy methods of spreading their influence, usually through bribery and supplying certain goods to fit the sector's needs – the Suns would push working girls and slave labor to some of the brothels and industrial areas, the Hivers would sell high quality blasters and vehicles off to Tiandong, and the Hutts would push an unholy amount of chems onto the streets. This, combined with Tiandong's incredibly lax regulations on goods and trade, meant that it was an unparalleled free market, even by the standards of Coruscant's underworld.

Of course, even with its shiny looks and bright lights, the place was still just as seedy and crime-infested as the rest of the underworld – the natural price for having the influence of three major criminal powers in one sector. In fact, Tiandong's security was more for the gangs than it was for the people living there. Cybernetics harvesting was quite a common crime there, alongside the usual suspects of murder and robbery. There was even the occasional casino heist that usually went nowhere, thanks to Tiandong's rather excessive use of force.

As the _Bane_ moved along with airspeeder traffic over the district, Sidewinder let out a long, drawn out 'buwao' of impressment at the glittering lights and bright colors of the casinos. "Easy there, firebrand. Ash isn't here to gamble her money away." Nevda said in a joking manner, rubbing her knuckles on Sidewinder's chassis. "Where's this transponder at?"

Pulling out the datapad, Ash turned it on and flicked around towards the Kluun sector. "…Seems like it's in one of the ghettos with a lot of Black Sun activity. An apartment complex, actually. Closest place we can set down is by _Pleasures of Cerea_ , seven blocks up."

Nevda nodded, moving the _Bane_ out of the airspeeder lane, setting it over a back alley between two large casinos, and then pushing the throttle up. Not being restricted by airspeeder traffic, it barely took them a minute to arrive at the Cerean-owned brothel and casino. Carefully maneuvering the _Bane_ onto a nearby landing pad behind the building, Nevda set her down, and the front cockpit opened out.

Without another word, Ash got out with Sidewinder. "Hey!" Nevda called out, reaching under the console and pulling out a tracking fob, before tossing it to Ash, who caught it with ease. "You'll be needing this."

Ash paused, nodded once, and then disappeared behind a corner. Nevda shut the cockpit again, leaning back in her chair, and shutting her eyes to get some rest.

* * *

 _Beep. Beep. Beep._

Ash kept her eye trained on the fob, even as it fed info to her mask through her implants. As much as she had come to rely on them, they could still fail due to a minor glitch somewhere in the data stream between the fob, her implants, and her mask. Glancing ahead and to her right, she spotted the marker for the transponder that had been placed by the fob, and a quick point of the fob in its direction confirmed that it wasn't a glitch.

Turning the corner, she was greeted with the sight of a small group of Black Sun gangers hanging around an idling landspeeder, sharing cheap booze and laughing. The one sitting on the front of the speeder nudged his buddies to get their attention, and they collectively looked over at Ash. She flared up her viewplate holograms to intimidate them and get them to turn their attention elsewhere. Regrettably, it didn't work, but a few of them at least looked on edge. Two of them, a Devaronian built like a tank, and a scrawny looking Bothan just a little taller than Ash walked over.

Ash quickly stowed her fob, but it didn't fool the gangers. "…What do we have here, Morc?" the Bothan said in a playfully malicious tone.

The Devaronian, Morc, smirked in response. "Looks like a bounty hunter that's wandered into the wrong part of town to me, Kuth." he answered, observing Ash. "And would you just look at those augs? Probably a couple thousand's worth of 'em." he continued greedily.

Ash kept her hand on her holster, ready to draw if need be. "I'd suggest you go back to your little block party with your friends, hornhead." she said, her voice ice cold. "You keep this up, and I can't guarantee that getting your ass kicked by a woman a third of your size would look good on you and your buddies."

The Devaronian snorted. "Have it your way, midge." he said indignantly, before moving to grab Ash. She easily moved out of the way of the lumbering giant's grasp, grabbed his arm, and threw him to the pavement with shocking ease. For good measure, Ash kicked him in the ribs, before jumping to the Bothan, who had only just realized that his sole immediate backup was now kissing the ground. Quickly grabbing onto her would-be assailant by his long mane, she threw him head-first into the wall, knocking him out cold.

Hearing the rest of the Suns approaching, Ash turned quickly, and activated her carbide wrist blades to serve as a warning to the rest of the Suns. They seemed to be smarter than their friends, and quickly backed up. "Easy, easy…" one of them said to try and defuse the situation, while Sidewinder floated beside Ash, angrily trilling and chirping at the Black Suns.

"Stay away, or you're gonna get a hell of a lot worse of a beating than your friends here got." Ash warned, not dropping her guard in the slightest.

One of the Suns, a Twi'lek, shook her head laughing. "We don't care that you beat their asses. If you weren't gonna do it, we were." she said, before fishing in her jacket pockets for something. She produced a credstick, and tossed it to Ash, who easily caught it. "Take this for the trouble. Last thing we'd want is Tiandong kicking our asses over one of their hunters getting harvested by those two boltheads."

Ash quickly stowed the credstick, but kept her eyes on the gangers as she backed into the apartment building. "C'mon, let's get these two the hell out of here." one of them suggested, before they picked the Devaronian and Bothan up and boarded their landspeeder, finally taking off.

Sheathing her wrist blades, Ash looked up and to her right. The IFF transponder was just one floor up, and looked to be the first or second room on the left from the stairwell in front of her. The entryway to the complex was, unsurprisingly, in an appalling state. A couple lights were hanging down from the ceiling, their wires exposed. More than a few parts of the walls had been stripped or destroyed by scrappers, and there was at least a little bit of water damage.

There was also, strangely, the stench of a rotting dead body. Probably a stim junkie that overdosed somewhere. Undeterred, Ash went up the stairwell, the stairs creaking and moaning, threatening to give in, even under her light weight. Coming out of the stairwell, the damage was even worse on the second floor. There were more than a few brown smears, possibly blood, more than likely vomit, but the stains had been there for so long that Ash could hardly tell anymore.

The door to the room where the IFF transponder looked like it had been bashed open with an axe. Cautiously, Ash drew one of her bryar pistols and approached the door. Sidewinder floated in front of the hole, and enabled a link to Ash's viewplate. The transponder was on a dead body, lying flat on the floor. Ash waited as Sidewinder sent out a scan pulse. Only one person was in the room, and they were hiding in a closet, with Sidewinder's pulse showing their breathing was irregular and rapid.

Opening the door as slowly as she could, she motioned for Sidewinder to keep an eye on the closet and stun the person if they tried to come out. Quickly moving to the body, she saw more clearly that it was a Twi'lek, her skin a pale blue. Her face was locked in a scream, eyes rolled back into her head, with blood dribbling from her nose. She looked like she had been choked out, as there was purple bruising around her neck. Finally, as if to add to the strange scene, her lekku looked like they had been deflated.

Hesitantly picking one of the headtails up, Ash realized that they weren't deflated – they were empty. With one quick scan, Ash confirmed the presence of residue consistent with Twi'lek brain matter on the woman's face. Disturbed, but not deterred, she grabbed the transponder from the woman's jacket and stored it in her bag. Turning her attention to the person in the closet, she approached carefully, before knocking twice on the door. "Hello?" Ash said, sounding as friendly as she could.

No response.

Ash knocked again. "I know you're in there. Come out." she said, and the person in the closet grumbled.

"…Go away." he said, his voice shaken and upset. With what little light was getting into the closet, Ash caught a glimpse of the man's face, red from crying.

Sighing in frustration, Ash shook her head. "Afraid I can't do that."

The man glared at her angrily from the closet. "Why? Because you're here to finish what your friend started?" he poised, trying to sound as angry as he could, but in all honesty, he just sounded pathetic.

"Friend?" Ash repeated, looking to the body. "…I don't know any Anzat." she said frankly, before looking back into the closet. "…Look, can you just tell me what happened?"

The man seemed to shake his head. "How do I know you're not just gonna kill me after I'm done talking?"

Ash rolled her eyes behind her mask. "Because I'd have done it already. My droid already knew you were in here. If I _did_ want you dead, we wouldn't be talking right now, would we?"

The man went silent for a few seconds, before the closet slid open, revealing the man in full. He had black hair slicked back, a strong jawline, and was completely clean shaven. His silver eyes were shining in what little light there was. Sidewinder got close out of curiosity, but backed away when the man sneered at him. He turned his attention to Ash. "…That Twi'lek on the floor was my girlfriend. She ran a chop-shop for speeders, a couple blocks away, towards the Strip."

Ash relaxed, and sat down next to the man. "Any idea why someone would want to kill her?" Ash asked, and the man winced at the question.

"…She grew up a slave on Ryloth. A local Hutt owned her until she managed to escape. If I had to guess who would have wanted her dead, I'd say either the Black Suns or the Hutts. She _never_ played ball with either of them, but she was more than okay with the Hivers." he explained, before looking out of the closet at the Twi'lek. "She'd been getting threatening messages for the past few weeks. Sometimes, it was a bunch of gangers spraypainting the words 'die, die, die' outside the shop, other times she'd get sent dead animals or severed limbs, shit like that. I just wish that she would have listened to me and got us the hell out of here."

Ash produced the transponder. "Do you know anything about this?" she asked, and the man squinted at it in the darkness.

"…No, what is it?"

Opening her mouth to speak, Ash caught her tongue before she blew her cover. "…It's probably how the murderer tracked your girlfriend. It's an IFF transponder owned by my employers. There was a break-in a few weeks back, and some of them were stolen."

"Stolen? By who?"

"That's classified. Sorry." Ash answered, shooting his question down immediately. "…Did you catch the killer's appearance? They were an Anzat, of this I'm certain, but any specific details would go a long way to helping me catch them."

The man shook his head. "No, I was out with my friends at the cantina when the killer probably showed up. I only came back an hour ago, and I've been too shaken up to do anything else but sit in the closet."

Ash frowned. "That's unfortunate, but not entirely unexpected. I've gotten what I've come for, but what's your name, just in case I need to come back?" she questioned, and the man stared at her, his expression blank.

"K-Kad. Kad Kor." he choked out after several seconds.

Ash nodded and placed her hand on his shoulder. "I appreciate your help, Kor, and I pray that nothing else happens to you. Whoever killed your girlfriend is likely an enemy of my employers, and their death is all but assured." she said, before standing up and moving to leave, Sidewinder trailing her.

"Wait," Kor said, reaching his hand out, and Ash stopped in the doorway. "Just who are you? ISB or some shit?"

Ash paused to consider his question, and looked at him from the corner of her eye. "'Or some shit.'" she quipped, before leaving the apartment.

* * *

For the next three days, Ash would hunt down the transponders in Aug Family and Hutt territory. Strangely enough, the situations of the 'owners' were similar to the Twi'lek in the Kluun sector. Dingy, run-down building, grisly murder scene, signs of an Anzat, and the transponder left on the body. The Hutt kill was, surprisingly, a minor functionary, while the Aug Family one was a major enforcer.

That just left the Coru-Hiver mark.

As she walked through their territory, Ash felt uneasy. The streets were completely abandoned, with only the occasional airspeeder flying through, although they weren't Imperial or Hiver, as they never stopped her to enforce a curfew. She just couldn't shake the feeling that she was being watched, which was a very real possibility.

"Run another scan pulse, Sidewinder." Ash requested, and Sidewinder complied, sending the pulse out. Again, nobody was at their windows, but seeing empty streets on a planet with over a trillion people wasn't exactly a good sign. Usually, there'd be at least a few delinquent kids around, or mingling smugglers and gangers.

This? This was more barren than a Twi'lek in her thirties, and Ash hated it. Sidewinder had evidently picked up on this, and let out a questioning 'dwooo?' in her ear. "Have you ever seen Coruscant streets this empty? It's unnerving." she responded as they passed by an empty cantina – the Mare's Leg. "Even on lower levels, there's _someone_ around."

Sidewinder gave her a comforting 'dwoo-dwaa', and she scratched his chassis on response. "I know, I can handle any two-bit gangster in this level, Sidewinder. Come on, the transponder is just up ahead." Ash said, and Sidewinder trailed after her down an alleyway.

The transponder was one floor up, and from what Ash could tell, the person in possession of it was alive. Ash pat Sidewinder on the chassis once. "Go up to that window and give me a visual." she requested, and Sidewinder happily chirped, floating up as Ash's HUD gained access to Sidewinder's perspective.

What she saw wasn't really what she was expecting – the window had already been broken in, and two men, both around six foot, were brawling in a bedroom, while a woman lay helplessly on the bed. As she cautiously observed the home invasion play out, Ash caught sight of tendrils coming from the man closer to the window, and it suddenly clicked. Ash pressed down on her commlink. "Nevda, I've caught our killer in the act, going in now." she said, before launching her grappling wire up over the window, and beginning to climb up.

" _Copy that, Ash, going silent until you come back on comms."_ Nevda replied, and then the commlink cut out.

As Ash scaled the building's wall, she heard the sounds of the fight intensifying, the man and the Anzat exchanging blows, while the woman whimpered, and another one was yelling and pounding on the door. Finally vaulting over the seal, Ash leapt onto the Anzat, kicking him in the back, surprising him. She grabbed hold of his flailing tendrils and pulled, but to her surprise, he grabbed her, pulled her from his back, and threw her at the other guy.

Reacting quickly, she unsheathed her wrist blade, and the force of the blade coming out embedded it in the ceiling, stopping her from hitting the other guy. Ash quickly sheathed it again to free herself, crouched into a low position, and re-drew the blade in a ready stance, alongside the other man. "Tag him, Sidewinder." she communicated in binary, and on command, a hole opened in Sidewinder's chassis, and a tiny, nearly invisible dart shot out, attaching itself to the killer's clothes.

The killer took one look at his situation and huffed. "Unfortunate." he commented simply, before running out the window. The man ran over to the seal, while Ash looked at Sidewinder's perspective, which was now rewinding. As soon as he dropped below the seal, it's like he just disappeared. One frame he was there, the next, gone.

"Son of a bitch, he got away again." the man commented in a horrifically familiar voice, one that sent shivers down Ash's metallic spine. He poked his head out the window, and apparently seeing nothing, came in, alongside Sidewinder, who calmly floated by Ash's head. "…Thanks for the assist, lady, but, uh…" the man continued to trail in that haunting voice as he came into the light, revealing his jet black hair and mismatched eye colors. "…you should probably get out of here before the Hivers come knocking."

Ash's mouth hung open, and she could only think to say one thing.

"…Nax?"

* * *

 **That's that for this chapter. I wanted to get this out in time for Christmas, because I literally cannot work at this during Christmas Eve and Day since I'm at my grandparents all day.**

 **There was originally going to be a fifth transponder, and each one was supposed to have its own segment, but I cut this for time since I write at a glacial pace. Said fifth transponder would have been in Sienar Fleet Systems' corporate tower on the surface, and it would have largely focused on Sidewinder trying to Metal Gear his way past the guards.**

 **Speaking of – the idea for Sidewinder came to me after beating Fallen Order. I wanted a cute droid that would also be significantly helpful to Ash's tasks, make him tailor-made and all that shit. In case it wasn't obvious, BD-1 was the primary inspiration, although Dio from Battlefront 2 was why I made it an ID9 droid.**

 **That whole CR90 course thing was inspired by the FNG CQC course from CoD4.**

 **Anyways, until next time, and have a happy New Year and a merry Christmas!**

 **-Tweak**


	15. Stab and Grab

**Pulsar Company is a year old today. Holy fucking SHIT. It honestly feels like just a few months ago that I dropped Grimm Retreat for Pulsar Company, and not long after found out about Koikatsu and made the characters in there instead of learning to draw.**

 **I'm considering rewriting probably the first three chapters of Pulsar Company to be more in line with the rest of the story. At the very least, chapter 1 will be rewritten since I'm not too happy with how I handled the introduction of Nax and Kyra.**

 **Read and review.**

* * *

Nax, Lexi, and Kyra sat on one end of the table in their YT-1300, while 'Ash' sat on the other end. Knockout stood to the side, watching over the two sides, while Arfive sat in the back. Katy was patrolling the freighter, and Sidewinder was… somewhere, with the only hint of his existence being intermittent scan pulses to keep an eye on anyone trying to approach the freighter.

Normally, they would have done this inside the apartment, but given the potential for the killer to be lurking, they opted to take this somewhere more secure. After a long, uncomfortable period of silence, Nax was the first one to speak. "…So, how do we know you're telling the truth about who you claim to be?" he questioned, his and Kyra's expressions ones of people who appeared to be annoyed, but were at least giving the situation serious consideration. Lexi, meanwhile, was far more neutral on the matter, more so from her not having met 'Ash' before.

Ash sighed, and slowly reached for her mask. She slowly pressed down on the seals, and it hissed as it came loose. Taking the mask into her hands, she let her blonde hair fall out, and Ash kept looking at the table as she set the mask down. Finally, she looked up, and Kyra and Nax's expressions shifted instantaneously.

'Ash' was, in actuality, Kelah, still alive and breathing. Her face bore scars she must have sustained during the attack – she was blind in her right eye, a cataract having formed over it. Two knife scars ran along her face, one vertical along her right eye, and the other diagonal across her face, towards her left eye. Her neck had a soft blue pulse glowing around it, as did her chest, roughly where her heart was. "…Surprised?" Kelah asked, and Nax and Kyra could only leave their mouths hang.

"…We thought you were dead." Kyra said, still shocked to see Kelah alive.

Kelah shook her head, somewhat amused by that comment. "Technically, Kelah Voto _is_ dead. There just happens to be a woman named Ash who is a dead ringer for her and has the same injuries Kelah had when she died."

By this point, Lexi had grown fed up with this little reunion. "Hey," she nudged Nax. "Who the hell is this, and why do you two act like you know her?" she asked.

Nax glanced at Lexi. "Remember when we were telling Eath about those insurgents from Tatooine?" Nax answered, and before Lexi could respond, Nax continued to speak. "She was one of them. We couldn't find her body, so we thought she was dead."

Kyra pushed whatever Nax had in mind out of the way and brought herself to the forefront. "…How did you escape from the compound, Kelah? The Empire ripped it up pretty good."

Kelah's face soured. "…After Tenan was shot, I just… lost it. I jumped out of cover and started blasting every Stormtrooper that I could see." she answered, seeming ashamed of herself. "…It didn't do me any good, though. Caught a bunch of return fire, bolts tore my lungs up. Saber tanks blasted the wall open and I got caught under the rubble before I blacked out." she elaborated, before taking a long pause to collect herself. "…When I came to, the compound was wrecked, and everyone was dead. Val, Emel, Tenan, Blii, all of them." Kelah finished, and Nax and Kyra gave each other a funny look at the mention of Blii's name, but Kelah seemed to ignore it. "…I managed to haul myself to Mos Eisley, got patched up, and hitched a ride to Coruscant. I was pretty much a cripple, until I found a cyberneticist here, so…"

Kyra and Nax exchanged an unsure look. "…Kelah?" Nax said hesitantly, not sure how to break the news to her.

"Yes?"

"Val… Val… wasn't dead, Kelah." Nax said, and Kelah went dead silent. "…When we got there, she was bleeding out, barely conscious." he continued, and Kelah stared through him. "…She died in my arms, Kelah. I buried her just outside the compound, rifle and all."

Kyra took her necklace off, and showed it to Kelah. "…She gave me this before she died."

Kelah took the necklace into her hands and examined it closely, the faintest hint of tears beginning to show themselves. Brushing her bangs out of the way, she brought the gem to her left eye. After a while, she handed the necklace back to Kyra. "…Keep hold of that, Kyra." she said as Kyra put the necklace back on. Kyra nodded in response, and then Kelah looked to Nax. "…So, you mean to tell me that Val… could have lived?"

Pausing to answer, Nax held his tongue. "…I don't think so, Kelah. It was an hour drive on speeders to the base from Mos Eisley – how long did it take you to get back on foot?" Nax asked, and Kelah clasped her hands together.

"…At least a day, Nax. I had to sneak around several Imperial patrols, _and_ a Tusken raiding party, which meant I had my face down in the sand, trying not to make a sound." Kelah replied after thinking on it for a bit.

"…Then she probably would have died anyways, Kelah." Nax said grimly, and the group went silent out of respect for Kelah, except for Lexi, who leaned in to Nax's ear.

"Who's Val?" she whispered.

"My ex." Nax answered back, and then Lexi went silent, shrinking back into her spot.

Kelah finally collected herself, sitting up straight. "…So, what are you doing on Coruscant?" she asked, her tone low, before she glanced at Lexi. "And who's the Zeltron? Friend of yours?"

Nax sat back, his arm resting over Kyra as he pulled her closer. "Doing jobs for the Coru-Hivers, mostly." he said, before looking to Lexi. "As for her, she's Lexi, a friend of Kyra's. Would have brought her along to the base if she wasn't staying at my friend's house in Mos Eisley."

Kelah raised an eyebrow as she glanced at Knockout, and then back to Nax. "Your friend's house? Why was she there?" she questioned.

"Because Kyra was a slave, and so was Lexi. The slavers who Kyra had escaped from were using Lexi to seduce me so that I would tell them where she was." he answered, and Kelah's eyes widened.

"Really?" she asked, and Kyra nodded shamefully. "That… explains a lot about how you acted, Kyra, with you always sticking close to Nax. He was protecting you, wasn't he?" she continued, and Kyra nodded again.

"That's also why I reacted the way I did when you mentioned Emel would flog me if I didn't get up early. The slavers had beaten me almost constantly for at least a week before I escaped." Kyra said, and Kelah nodded her head in understanding.

"…So, you left Lexi with your friend because you were afraid she was with the slavers? Why take the risk and let her live?" Kelah questioned, confused at Nax's motives.

"Because she mentioned Kyra by name, and I'm not one to just take a life for the hell of it, Kelah." Nax responded, and that gave Kelah some pause, perhaps triggering some sort of self-reflection over her own actions. "…I think that's enough about us, Kelah. What's brought you to Coruscant of all places? I thought someone like you would stick to the Rim." Nax asked, already knowing full well what her answer would be.

Kelah hesitated, before caving in a little bit. "…I came to Coruscant to join back up with an organization that helped me get on my feet when I was still a young girl, slicing terminals and draining bank accounts to make ends meet." she responded, sounding sullen. "I… abandoned them in a show of what I thought was defiance, but I now realize it was arrogance that had blinded me."

That, admittedly, was not what Nax had been expecting to hear, but at least it helped to confirm what he already knew. "Which organization was this?" he continued to pry.

Kelah looked straight at Nax, and still visibly hesitant, relented. "…When they brought me in, they were the Synthskin Union, but the specific group I was with is the Transhuman Ascendancy, now."

Silently, Nax nodded, following along. Kyra and Lexi also opted to listen in as Nax straightened up and sat forward. "I see. So, let's move to more pressing matters, Kelah. That transponder I didn't even know I had – why did you want it?"

Kelah shut her eyes and breathed in. "The Anzat that almost killed you - he had a batch of stolen transponders belonging to the Ascendancy that were taken by Luddic sympathizers." she explained, opening her eyes again. "I was tasked with retrieving them, and I suspect he's been using them to mark targets for… feeding on, for lack of a better term. The other three transponder marks were already dead by the time I got there."

Lexi suddenly shot forward, eyes wide open. "Wait, you said these were Ascendancy transponders stolen by Luddic sympathizers? And you think these were placed on the victims without their knowing?" she questioned, and Kelah nodded. "…I think this Anzat is trying to spark a gang war. Who were the other three victims?"

"A Twi'lek that ran a mechanical shop, a major Aug Family enforcer, and a minor functionary for the Hutts."

"Two gang members, and it would have been three more had you not saved our asses." Lexi stated. "I almost forgot Desani, too."

"Who?" Kelah asked, unfamiliar with the name.

"Hiver lieutenant. We were investigating her death, when the killer ended up revealing himself to me." Nax quickly answered, before pointing at the transponder Kelah had held in her hand. "That's also probably how he got the transponder on me after he realized Kyra and Lexi wouldn't let him feed."

Kelah closed her hand and put it to her mouth. "…Then that would have been six dead gang members, three of them important to some degree, and all evidence would point to the Ascendancy…" she mumbled quietly, letting out a light gasp of horror. "Maker, it'd be like the war with the Black Sun all over again…" she continued, before suddenly looking at Nax. "I have to get this to my superior. Going after this Anzat isn't a direct order, but I'll try and push him to let me go after him." she said, standing back up, and Knockout obliged her, stepping back. "I'd suggest you do the same, Nax." she said, finally moving to leave. She paused mid-stride, however, and glanced at Nax. "And Nax, Kyra?" she said quietly. The pair looked at her inquisitively as she bit her lip. "Stay safe out there. I mean it. Stay away from the apartment for now." she finished, disappearing from sight as Knockout escorted her off the freighter.

Nax and Kyra exchanged unsure looks with each other. Kelah had just wished that the two of them would stay safe. If only she knew the truth about the attack on the compound. They silently agreed that it would be best to keep the truth from her. That was, if they crossed paths with her again. Knockout returned, his weight crashing against the floor signaling so. "Kelah has exited the perimeter, Master Strag." he boomed, before tilting his entire torso at an angle to look at Lexi. "It appears something is troubling Master Sapphyra." he said, before walking off to guard the entrance ramp.

"Lexi?" Kyra said to her, and Lexi looked up. "Something wrong?" she asked, and Lexi's head sank into her palm.

"You tell me, Kyra." Lexi answered bitterly. "Does the prospect of the underworld going up in flames a second time mean anything to you? Because it sure as hell does to me." she flatly stated, crossing her arms and sitting back. "Even though we weren't killed, the other gang members were, I don't think I need to tell you just how much the Hutts alone could tear this place apart in a war with the Ascendancy, let alone if the rest of the Synthskins got involved." she continued, shaking her head tearfully. "This is my – no, _our_ home, Nax." she quickly corrected. "We let whoever's behind this get away with it, and we'll end up in their crosshairs sooner or later."

Nax pulled out his datapad and tapped away at it. "Lexi's got a point. I'm bringing this up with Vopa." he said as he sent a message to him. Three seconds had barely passed when Vopa replied with _'Meet me at the Mare's Leg.'_

Standing up, Nax motioned for Arfive to follow him to the cockpit. Kyra, however, stayed where she was instead of following Nax. She moved over to Lexi, threw her arm around her, and pulled her close, with the slightest yelp of surprise coming from Lexi. "Lexi, look at me," Kyra requested, and Lexi did so. "We'll bring down the people behind this, whoever the hell they are." she said with such fierce determination that it actually shocked Lexi. She had been so meek and quiet for the few months they had known each other, that this was pretty much unprecedented.

However, Lexi managed to pull away and stare Kyra in the eyes. "And if it kills us?" she poised, and Kyra simply shook her head.

"I have a feeling it won't, Lexi." Kyra responded confidently.

* * *

Vopa leaned over the counter, setting out three shots of whiskey out of courtesy for the three of them. However, to his surprise, the three of them abstained, even Lexi, who normally would have downed it within a second of him putting the drink down. The front window had the blinds shut, and the door had been covered and locked, with the lighting dimmed a little bit. It was, admittedly a little bit overdramatic. "Lay it on me." Vopa said to Nax.

"Do you want the bad news, or the worse news first?" Nax asked, and Vopa raised his eyebrows as he poured himself a drink.

"Let's go with the worse news, Nax." he replied as he downed the shot in one go.

"Someone's trying to start a gang war in the underworld." Nax flatly answered, and Vopa barely reacted how Nax was expecting.

Setting the glass back on the counter, Vopa gave a nonchalant shrug. "So?" he casually said. "This shithole of an underworld has people trying to start wars all the time. Who cares? It's not our problem." he continued, pouring another shot and downing it.

"Except it _is_ our problem." Nax snapped back, and Vopa paused, before motioning for him to continue. "This involves the Anzat killer. After I found him in the apartment building, he knocked me unconscious and slipped a transponder into my duster – one belonging to the Ascendancy."

Kyra sat up and tapped on the counter twice. "Did Desani have a transponder on her?" she questioned, and Vopa looked to her, visibly thinking for an answer to that. Eventually, he nodded 'yes' to her question.

"We didn't have time to crack the encryption on it, but it was stolen, so the point is moot. Was that an Ascendancy transponder, too?" Vopa asked, and Nax gave off a look that told Vopa the answer was, more likely than not, yes. "…So, the Ascendancy has this Anzat kill Desani, and tries to kill you three?"

It was now Lexi's turn to speak. "Not exactly." she said while staring absent mindedly at her shot glass. "Around an hour ago, I was about to turn in for the night, when I heard a crash come from the bedroom of our apartment. Nax and Kyra usually keep the door locked, so I knock. No answer, so I listen in."

"And?"

Nax suddenly interjected. "The killer had broken in through the window and was looming over us. My dumb ass was too slow to stop him from paralyzing Kyra, but he couldn't focus on paralyzing me when I was bearing down on him, so we brawled and beat the hell out of each other." Nax exposited, before finally giving in and downing the shot. "He got more than a few good hits on me, but I was mostly just stalling for time until Lexi could break the door down and shoot him." he continued, motioning for Vopa to pour him another shot, to which he obliged.

Vopa considered pouring himself another shot, but wisely decided to stay at least a little bit sober. "So, how'd you survive? I assume Lexi broke the door down and drove him away, at the very least?" Vopa asked, glancing at Lexi.

"No, actually." Nax answered, earning a surprised look from Vopa. "Remember that woman who was with the Ascendancy that I asked you to look into?" he asked, and Vopa nodded, curious where this was going, or how this was relevant. "She showed up through the window, too, and went after the killer. He threw her towards me, but she extended some sort of arm blade and stabbed the wall with it to stop herself, retracted it, and dropped down, ready to beat this asshole within an inch of his life." he continued to talk, before stopping to down the shot again, setting it aside. "When he saw that he was about to fight an agent of the Ascendancy, and a pissed off bounty hunter, he made the wisest choice he could and got the hell out of there."

"Did you at least see his face?"

Nax shook his head, resting his head on his hand. "Nope. He was masked, but the woman from the Ascendancy tagged him with her droid, so she at least knows where he is, provided he didn't get rid of the tracker." he answered, before suddenly sitting straight again. "Which reminds me – the Ascendancy isn't at fault."

That roused Vopa's curiosity. "Sure as shit sounds like they are. Care to explain?" he asked, and Nax looked behind himself at Arfive, who was sitting idly, running calculations absentmindedly. With a single whistle, Nax woke the droid up, and he immediately played the recording from the ship.

" _The Anzat that almost killed you - he had a batch of stolen transponders belonging to the Ascendancy that were taken by Luddic sympathizers."_ Kelah's hologram repeated, her voice filtered by the recording and her face obscured by her hood. Vopa's expression went from one of mild interest to a full on 'oh shit' look.

"The Pathers are trying to organize a war between us, the Union, and the Hutts." Vopa realized, stroking his chin in deep thought. "…but why? They don't have any stakes in businesses that we control, same with the Hutts." he pondered, seeming to stare through Nax.

Lexi's look of absent-mindedness changed to one of pure horror. "They're planning some sort of attack." she said, completely deadpan and as dryly as she could. Glancing over at her, Vopa waited for her to elaborate. "That magrail attack from about ten years back – I did some digging, and the Pathers did something similar by pitting the Hutts and Black Sun against each other to cause chaos, just so they could slip by and kill an official from Cestus Cybernetics trying to extend the olive branch to the Union." she stated calmly, visibly soured. "…It just so happens that they had to kill over four hundred people, too."

Vopa seemed even more troubled now. "I'll have my slicers pull triple time on getting those datapads sliced. Odds are pretty good that whatever they have planned will be on them. It's just gonna take a few more weeks."

Lexi shook her head in frustration. "That's too long, Vopa. Give me the datapads and I'll have them cracked in a few days." she said, a hint of protest in her voice. "Odds are, I have more experience cracking Pather codes than any of your slicers. It'll be faster if I do it." she continued, and Vopa was about to turn her down, until he saw the pleading look in her eyes – a look that called out to him that this was personal to her, and that she wanted revenge.

Vopa breathed a sigh. "…Fine. I'll send the datapads over to the ship as soon as I can." he conceded, and Lexi bowed her head in appreciation for his understanding of her motives, even if it was nonverbal. "By the way, Nax," Vopa said suddenly, catching Nax off guard. "You really should name that thing." he half-joked, before shooing them to the back entrance. "Now, get gone, before a curfew patrol comes knocking and asks why the damn lights are on!" Vopa half-whispered, and just like that, the group left the cantina, and Vopa was, once again, left to his own devices. He quickly took another shot, before pulling out his datapad.

* * *

Nevda automatically piloted the ship with her scomp-link, taking in the sights and sounds of the lower levels. Sidewinder pressed himself up against the cockpit glass, just as mesmerized by Coruscant as he had been the first day Kelah had him. Deciding to take her eyes off the skylanes and let the autopilot handle the job of piloting for her, Nevda turned her gaze upon Kelah, who, strangely, had come back with her mask off. She was deep in thought over something. "…So, what did you find at the last place, Kelah?" Nevda questioned, dipping the ship down a little bit to go under an overhang.

Kelah furrowed her brows, seemingly a little bit upset that Nevda had broken her out of her pseudo-trance. "…Remember when I told you about those two recruits we had who were boyfriend and girlfriend, the ones that I said were probably dead?" she questioned, and Kelah lightly nodded her head so as to not disconnect the scomp-link accidentally. "…They were alive, Nevda. The Anzat I've been chasing was about to kill the both of them when I stepped in and managed to drive him away." she continued to speak, and Nevda was about to chastise her for letting him run, only for Kelah to instead pull out a tracking dart and give a cheeky smile. Nevda gave a chuckle in response.

"So, what did you do about their transponder?" she questioned, before leaning forward to scratch Sidewinder on the chassis, earning her the droid equivalent of purring.

Stashing the tracking dart back into her jacket, she put her fingers under Sidewinder's arms and toyed with them for a bit, before sitting back in the copilot seat. "I let them know who I was."

Nevda suddenly jerked the ship down in shock, before immediately correcting her course. "You did WHAT!?" she shouted, looking at Kelah wide-eyed. "Why would you trust someone with that, Kelah? What if they snitch on you and the Pathers found out? Did you think of that?"

Kelah crossed her arms. "They won't, for two reasons." she said, holding up one finger. "We have a common enemy in the Anzat and the Path." She then held up a second finger. "You haven't seen the lengths her boyfriend will go to to protect people." Kelah finished, and Nevda narrowed her eyes in response, but remained silent, focusing instead on flying back to Ascendancy territory.

* * *

As Kelah exited the turbolift with Sidewinder trailing behind her, she passed the Vanguards, who stood at attention, ever vigilant. Sidewinder was briefly distracted by the one to Kelah's right, and floated up to their head to examine them, but quickly returned to Kelah's side once he didn't react. Kelah kneeled before the Grand Ascendant, and set her bag with the transponders out. The Ascendant scanned the bag over with one of his 'arms', before grabbing it and handing the bag off to another Vanguard, who took it into a side room. "Voto, was there any trouble in retrieving the transponders?" the Ascendant asked.

Kelah remained still. "There was a slight disturbance that came with getting the fourth transponder, however, I've uncovered something far more sinister." she answered, and the Ascendant leaned forward, waiting for her to continue. "I have uncovered a plot to destroy the Ascendancy."

"Elaborate." the Ascendant demanded, fully at attention.

Kelah lifted her head to look at the Ascendant. "Two of the four transponders were on members of the Aug Family, and the Hutts, both of them killed. The Aug Family transponder was on the body of a major enforcer, while the Hutt one was a minor functionary." she explained as well as she could.

"…What of the remaining two transponders?"

Kelah cleared her throat. "The Kluun sector transponder was on the body of a Twi'lek mechanic. I couldn't find anything solid regarding gang connections, so she is the outlier. However…" Kelah said, slowing herself down to put it as best she could. "…the person the Hiver transponder was on was still alive when I got to him. I managed to catch who I believe to be the one using the transponders, however, he got away after I had Sidewinder tag him with a tracking dart." she explained, and the Ascendant remained silent, taking this information in. "The man that I caught was an Anzat – all of the deceased were killed in a fashion similar to the way an Anzat feeds. I also found out from Nax – the hiver mark – that one of the Hiver lieutenants critical to their logistics, was also killed by this same Anzat." Kelah finally finished, lowering her head to look at the floor again.

The Ascendant sat back, putting his hands together in a sort of regal, inquisitive look. "And you believe this information is credible?" he questioned, and Kelah nodded once. "…I see." was all he said. "The Path are trying to coordinate a war between the minor Union factions, the Hutts operating on Coruscant, and the Hivers to get them to target us. Very, very clever of them." he said, before lowering his hands to the arm rests of his throne, before snapping his gaze to Kelah. "Very well, Voto. I will trust your judgement on this matter. You have my full blessing to stamp out this plot, by any means necessary." he said, taking on a far more authoritative tone. "Now, go."

Kelah stood up and bowed. "Thank you, Grand Ascendant. I will not fail you." she said gracefully, before turning to leave. She heard the Grand Ascendant getting up, but she didn't stop, even as the Vanguards stamped their electrostaves against the floor.

Entering the turbolift, the door quickly shut behind her, and Sidewinder quickly moved in front of her face, his photoreceptor as wide as possible. He gave off a curious 'dwoo-dwoo?' and Kelah simply smiled at him and scratched his chassis. "Of course we'll get their help, Sidewinder. They probably know more about the situation than I do." she answered, and Sidewinder spun around excitedly.

* * *

Lexi wearily grabbed a datapad from the small pile that had accumulated on the table in the lounge of the ship. One of Vopa's guys had dropped them off earlier last night, and she had chosen to opt out of sleeping in favor of working on slicing the datapads.

Sluggishly, she pulled out her own datapad and attached the term-link cable to it, and her own slicing program was loaded in automatically. It had taken pretty much the entire night, but she had cracked through one set of encryption keys for the datapads. This new cell had seriously beefed up their security, and for all of the work she had put in cracking the original codes, only a little bit of it was applicable to her new task.

She waited and waited as the slicing program worked its magic, before it suddenly hit a roadblock, stopping all progress. "…Son of a..." Lexi muttered under her breath, getting up and going over to the conservator, practically flinging the door open, and pulling out the last energy drink that they had.

About to crack it open and down it in one go to continue her work, Nax suddenly stopped her. "You're still up?" he said from the hallway. She turned and looked at him, letting him get a full look at her tired visage. "Scratch that, how _long_ have you been up?" he asked, suddenly more concerned now.

"All night." Lexi replied, totally deadpan. "Gonna crack these codes if it damn near kills me." she continued, gesturing at the table, and Nax's eyes widened at the state she had left the area in.

Nax shook his head once, and then frowned. "Like hell you are, Lexi." he said in a very annoyed tone. "I want you at your best, not half-asleep." he continued to chastise, before looking over at her datapad, its slicing program laid bare for him to see. "And I'm not a slicer, but even I can tell your code here has a bunch of typos and errors." he continued, before looking back to Lexi. "Get some rest." he said, finally finished, and he sat down roughly where Lexi had just been sitting.

Instead of following his advice, Lexi stood there for a minute, before putting the drink back in the conservator, moving over to where Nax was sitting, and promptly collapsing on top of him, her head landing squarely in his lap, earning a surprised yelp from him. "I didn't say sleep _on_ me!" Nax complained as Lexi settled in.

"Too bad~!" she teased in a singsong voice, rolling over to look up at Nax, a little bit of her energy having come back to her, even though she still looked like she was about to die of exhaustion. She cracked the tiniest bit of a smile. "…You know, Nax, that's usually not the first response someone has when I practically throw myself on them." she said with a small giggle.

In response, he simply sighed. "It's a bit too early in the morning for me to be able to put up with these kinds of shenanigans, Lexi." Nax responded, although despite his words, he seemed to be accepting of his new position as a pillow.

Again, Lexi smiled and sat up, before moving on to Nax's lap, throwing her arm around his neck to provide an anchor, and she nestled her head into his chest. Nax was done verbally protesting, but that didn't mean he wasn't annoyed. Instead of just throwing her off, he let her lean on him, waiting for her to finally fall asleep as her breathing grew ever slower and her movement more still. Just when he thought she had gone to sleep, though, she suddenly spoke. "…Nax? Can I ask you something?" she groggily asked, her head not moving in the slightest. "…It's a little bit personal, so you can just tell me to frag myself if you don't want to answer."

Trying to get as comfortable as he could, Nax decided to indulge her a little bit more. "What's on your mind?"

Lexi's head shifted to look up at his face a little bit. "What was your family like?" she asked innocuously.

Nax paused for a moment to think of how to answer that question. "…Dad was… alright, given the hand he was dealt. Hiding on Tatooine to escape Lostur was probably a fine idea to him – starting a family wasn't." he responded, before looking down the hall to see Zeethree dawdling about. "He worked us pretty damn hard maintaining the moisture farm, but he wasn't cruel about it. Definitely a tough love type." he continued, seeming satisfied with his answer. "Strict as hell about what we could and couldn't do when we were kids, though." he added.

Lexi held herself a bit closer together, and looked up at Nax. "What about your brother? What was he like?" she continued to press.

A nostalgic, wistful smile appeared on Nax's face. "Oh, he was a damned blast. We always got on each other's nerves, but it never moved past a 'you moved my shit, so I'm gonna move yours and maybe do something else' kind of deal." he explained, and Lexi's eyes lit up at the prospect of Nax having that kind of relationship with his brother, one she had wanted when she was a kid. Nax's eyes suddenly lit up, and he burst out laughing, before quickly controlling himself. "Shit, like there was this one time where one of my friends had gotten hold of a few T-16s, so my brother and I went joyriding with them through Beggar's Canyon, blasting as many womp rats as we could." he began to fondly reminisce. "Some other guy in a T-16 showed up, so it basically turned into a pissing contest between the three of us on who could do the stupidest stunts."

"…Like?" Lexi asked with significant interest despite her tiredness.

"Like threading a gap so thin you were basically guaranteed to clip your wings if you made the _tiniest_ little mistake." Nax answered, still grinning at the memory. "Or buzzing sandcrawlers just for the hell of it!" he continued, sitting back a bit. "Man, that was a fun day."

"Was your dad mad at you?"

Nax began to laugh. "Oh, you have _no idea_. He was positively _pissed_ that we did something so reckless and dangerous." he continued to retell. "But I think somewhere deep down, he was proud that his Mando blood was showing in us both. Still got our asses confined to the homestead for two solid months, though, and Val had to visit _me_ for once."

Lexi began to laugh at how ridiculous Nax's relationship with his brother had been. "…So, what about your mom?" she asked, and just by the way Nax's expression changed, she could tell she had ruined the mood.

Nax's suddenly sullen look had told it all to Lexi, but he still felt the need to answer her. "…She died not long after my brother was born. Neither of us ever got to know her." he said in a matter-of-fact manner, and Lexi felt immensely sorry for him. She had decided that she was done asking questions, and had now returned to resting in Nax's arms.

She went back to drifting off to sleep, but again, something shot to the forefront of her mind. "…Hey, Nax?" she quietly mumbled, almost inaudible. Nax looked down at her with a modest amount of curiosity. "Can you lean down a little bit?" she requested. Not seeing the harm in obliging her, Nax leaned over, and Lexi sat up to whisper in his ear. "Thanks for getting me away from Lostur, Nax." she whispered as quietly as she could. "…I know I wasn't your main concern, but I appreciate what you did anyways."

Nax smiled back at Lexi. "If I'm saving one slave, I might as well try to save as many as I can." he said as Lexi nestled her head further into his chest. "Besides, I appreciate having a slicer on hand. It's nice not needing to have droids do all the work with electronics." he continued, and Lexi took that praise to heart.

Biting her lower lip, Lexi sat back up a little, and she gently stroked Nax's cheek with a certain amount of affection. She blushed, before returning to her resting position one final time, and immediately fell asleep in Nax's arms.

Having waited for a while and deciding that she wasn't going to wake back up again, Nax looked down at the sleeping beauty who was using him as a bed. "…The things I do for you two." he said with an exasperated, yet amused sigh, getting up and carrying Lexi bridal style to the crew quarters to put her in bed.

As he carried her, he passed by Zeethree. "Ah, Master Strag!" Zeethree said to get his attention, and he hissed quietly to get Zeethree to quiet down. "Kelah has returned, she's waiting outside the ramp with someone else, an acquaintance of hers, I believe." he prattled on in a significantly quieter voice to keep Lexi from waking.

Nax nodded carefully, before thinking of what to order Zeethree to do next. "…Have Knockout clear the mess of cans in the lounge for me, would you? I'll bring those two to the cockpit once I've dropped Lexi in her bed. Also, put Lexi's stuff somewhere Kelah and her friend won't find it." he ordered, and Zeethree nodded.

"Of course, Master Strag." he politely responded, before heading to go fetch Knockout.

Turning back towards the door to the crew quarters, he reached his hand out as best he could, and the door slid open for him. Stepping in, he moved to the right bunk and set Lexi down on the covers, before pulling them over her. As Nax stood back up, out of the corner of his eyes, he thought he saw Lexi looking at him with a smile on her face, but he blinked once, and she had settled in, lightly snoring.

Thinking nothing of it, Nax moved to leave, at least until he heard Kyra yawning. He turned and saw her sitting up in the bunk, stretching her arms out. She looked over her shoulder, saw Nax, and greeted him with a warm smile as she got out of bed, coming over to him, and the pair walked out of the crew quarters. "Good morning, Nax." she said in her usual noble tone.

"Morning, Kyra." he responded, still in a little bit of a daze. "Sleep well?" he asked, and Kyra smiled and nodded. Nax set his hand on her shoulder. "That's good to hear. I didn't make breakfast yet, and Kelah just showed back up with her friend, so you'll need to wait a bit."

Kyra tilted her head to the side and smiled again, shutting her eyes. "That's fine, Nax." she said in a kind voice, seeming impossibly regal despite the fact that she was still wearing her nightwear. With that, she gave Nax's hand a gentle squeeze, before heading into the lounge.

Nax went the opposite direction, towards the airlock. He reached around the corner and flipped the switch, causing the boarding ramp to hiss and slowly squeal as it lowered down. Slowly, Kelah and her companion were revealed, both of them masked up, weapons dangling from hip holsters that slightly jutted out from their coats, or in the case of her companion, her robes. The two of them quickly moved up the ramp, and Nax closed it behind them.

Kelah took her mask off, seeming appearing relieved that they were in private, while her acquaintance kept her mask on, before hesitantly taking it off, revealing a wide-eyed redhead with fractured green irises that seemed to have some sort of cybernetic capability, as blue 'fragments' would move across the surface of her eye. "Nax, this is Nevda, my pilot." Kelah introduced the two of them.

Holding his hand out, Nax gave her a friendly half-smile. "Nice to meet you, Nevda." he greeted, and Nevda shook his hand, but otherwise remained silent, staring in awe at him. Kelah quickly moved on, and the three of them moved into the passenger lounge, with Kelah and Nevda taking seats beside Kyra. "You two eat breakfast, yet?" he asked, and Kelah and Ash nodded, so he prepared to make eopie egg sliders with bits of nerf sausage in them for himself and Kyra, and a third plate for Lexi when she woke up.

Kyra looked over at Nevda, slightly confused. "Kelah, who's this?" she asked, and Nevda simply rested her head on her hands, giving Kyra a sort of cheeky grin.

Kelah leaned back in her seat and glanced over at Nax, before turning back to Kyra. "That's Nevda, she's my pilot, Kyra."

Nodding once, Kyra gave Nevda a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you, Nevda."

"Feeling's mutual."

The three of them chatted amongst themselves for a while, before Nax came to the table with breakfast. Immediately, Kelah and Nevda stopped talking and suddenly got serious. "So, here's the deal." Kelah said, her expression stone cold as Sidewinder came out of her bag and hovered over the table, producing a hologram of Coruscant, drawing Kyra, Nax, and Nevda's attention. "I've got the go-ahead from my superior to take down this killer, and I had Sidewinder tag him with a tracking dart just before he escaped." she said as Nax and Kyra began to eat. A yellow dot appeared deep within the hologram of Coruscant, roughly around level 1300. "Assuming he hasn't noticed the dart, this is roughly where he should be." she continued, pointing at the dot.

Kyra paused for a second to swallow, before she looked at Kelah. "And if he has?"

Kelah responded with a casual shrug. "We have a secondary lead with some datapads that might bring us to the Pather cell this Anzat is probably working for." she explained, and Kyra silently continued eating.

" _So do we."_ Nax thought to himself absent-mindedly. However, instead of staying quiet, he decided to ask a question. "So, since it's an Anzat we'll be facing, any suggestions for what we should bring?"

Kelah paused to think for a while. "…You mentioned that he didn't paralyze you and Kyra at the same time, so I can only assume he either doesn't have the ability to do it to more than one person, or he can, but fighting you rendered him unable to do so. There would be three of us…" she theorized, leaning over the table and looking up at Sidewinder. "…but I think it'd be better if we brought along some sort of droid as well. Sidewinder is nice, but I don't think he can handle an Anzat." she said, sounding fairly confident in her assessment, much to Sidewinder's offense. She then looked back to Nax. "Do you have a combat capable droid that isn't as… conspicuous as your B2?"

Nax nodded once, setting his food down and whistling. Immediately, everyone could hear the telltale sound of droid motivators at work, and shortly thereafter, Katy rolled into the lounge, while Arfive watched her intently from the corner of the room. "Kelah, this is T3-KT, but we just call her Katy."

Nevda and Kelah were both giving Katy intense looks, and the T3-unit simply tilted her head and let out a questioning 'bwo-dwoo?'. "…Is that…?" Nevda slowly said, and Nax nodded immediately.

"Yep – a functioning T3 droid, probably older than damn near everything on this planet." Nax responded, even sounding a little bit surprised himself at the words leaving his mouth. "She's got a blaster mounted in her head, and a fire extinguisher that could probably be tweaked to shoot out CryoBan, plus a shock prod." Nax explained as Katy demonstrated her toolset.

Thoughtfully stroking her chin, Nevda must have had about a million ideas running through her head for how to tweak Katy, getting a kind of gleam in her eyes that one would expect from a mad scientist. Katy simply looked at her, her photoreceptor wide as a saucer, with bits of purple and pink energy pulsing through it occasionally. She let out a wary 'dwoo?', and Nevda's grin only intensified. "The extinguishers in my ship use CryoBan. I can probably hack something together for her to use." Nevda said, even still brainstorming just what she could do to Katy.

Perhaps feeling left out, Arfive warbled angrily, opening his panels up to display his fire extinguisher and shock prod. Katy let out a trill that almost sounded like a giggle, which only served to infuriate Arfive further, earning a snicker from Nax. "Sorry, Arfive, but she's got the blaster, that's already a pretty big step up from your arsenal." he teased.

Kelah also chimed in. "That aside, Katy has her weight balanced more evenly. I think we'll use her." she said, and Arfive immediately threw an even bigger tantrum, charging up his shock prod, only for Katy to shock him, immediately making him back down.

Everyone had a laugh at how easily Arfive had been made to submit. As Nax and Kyra continued to eat, Nevda got up and left the ship to get her tools. When she had gotten back, the two of them were finished, and they were chatting amongst themselves while Nevda worked on Katy, with some help from Arfive.

* * *

The plan was, relatively speaking, quite simple. Sidewinder would scout out the building with a scan pulse, as well as sending video footage to the ship, and to Nax's, Kyra's, and Kelah's helmets, while they all breached the building from one of the small windows that led to the basement. From there, they would search the apartment, take whatever they could, and get the hell out.

There were only two slight issues. First was the Anzat himself, who, apparently, wasn't home, as demonstrated by the lack of any signs of life within the building, from both the scan pulses and Sidewinder's video feed.

Second was the possibility that the old man that must have been working with the killer _also_ lived here. While he was significantly less of a threat, at least on the surface, he may have some sort of trick up his sleeve. Assuming that it wasn't just some random homeless person that had been controlled or duped into doing the killer's bidding.

Sidewinder gave a tweet in everyone's ear to signal that the building was clear, so the four of them dipped into the shadows of the alleyway between the killer's building and the next. Kelah sidled up by the basement window, and, drawing her blade, carefully cut the glass out without as much as breaking it, and she set it aside, before flinging herself in. Nax and Kyra were considerably more careful, putting their feet on some sort of support as they entered, before turning around to let Katy in as she 'crouched' down as low as her servos would allow her. Sidewinder floated in behind Katy, and the entire group was inside the building.

Almost immediately, there was an onsent of dread as they switched their helmets and photoreceptors to low-light mode. The thing they immediately took note of was the strange sculptures dotting the room. Getting closer to the statues, the group realized they were statues of brains. Most were human, but a few were Twi'lek, Trandoshan, and Bith brains, among several others that they couldn't identify. Nax picked one of the brains up and read the written inscription on the base of the statue. "…Freeman." he said out loud, before noticing that they _all_ had names on them – names like Vao, Shephard, Calhoun, Ordo, and Shan. _"He's one creepy son of a bitch, isn't he?"_ Nevda idly commented over the comms.

" _I'll say."_ Lexi responded, still sounding a bit tired even though she had woken up from her nearly day long rest a few hours earlier.

Nax set the sculpture marked with the name Freeman back down, and drew the Deecee, pivoting towards the hinge door that led to the rest of the building, with Kelah and Kyra forming up on him, and Katy taking up the rear in a sort of arrowhead formation. Cautiously, Nax opened the door, sticking the barrel of the Deecee through, and it was a complete atmospheric change from the sculpture room.

While the sculpture room was nothing more than bare duracrete floors and walls with some plastoid tables set out, the new room was apparently a study, with shelves stocked with datapads, beautiful wood paneling, and what seemed to be professionally painted pieces of art, all signed with the name Caliban Bullen.

There was one painting of a woman in a long white dress in front of a Parantha tree in full bloom, pink petals slowly falling to the ground. She had long, white hair, similar to Kyra's, but she looked much, much older, roughly in her fifties. Kyra had no idea who this woman was, but she felt some sort of familiar connection to her. Maybe she had just seen her before in passing?

Whatever the answer was, Kyra wouldn't be able to dwell on it. "Run another scan pulse, Sidewinder." Kelah demanded, and her droid trilled in response, sending out the pulse as directed. The attention of both Kelah and Sidewinder was turned to one of the shelves. "He's picked up two faint pulses that weren't there before." she said in a hushed tone. Kelah motioned for Sidewinder to attach himself to the wall, which he readily did, and he pulsed again.

Putting one of her Bryar pistols away, Kelah held her fingertips out, appearing as if she were tapping at something, and then the entire shelf slowly swung out. _"The hell? Who puts some stupid holo-serial secret entrance in their home?"_ Lexi commented out of disbelief, getting a chuckle from Nevda over the comms.

Kelah took point from Nax, the five of them moving into the revealed 'tunnel' that went a bit further down, Sidewinder consistently running scan pulses that, for Kelah, were getting closer. At the bottom of the stairs was another hinge door, but it looked like it had been made to hide something. Trying to open the door, Nax quickly found that it was locked. There wasn't even some sort of panel Katy or Sidewinder could hook into, just an analog lock.

Kelah produced a fusion cutter and managed to melt the lock down in around a minute, and the door slowly swung out. Looking inside what was in the room, they were collectively mortified at the sight. Rusty surgical instruments were spread around the room with varying states of use – dried blood had been splattered against the duracrete walls, seeming to have gotten there many years ago. Electrical coils on the left and right sides of the room occasionally arced electricity across towards a middle conduit, and then towards another conduit on the opposite end of the room, causing a man to shout in pain, or otherwise weep. Blocking their vision of the man was the same old man that Nax had seen when investigating Desani's death.

Quickly moving the Deecee into a ready position, alongside Kelah and Kyra, Nax pointed the blaster at the man. "Don't move a muscle. You turn, I shoot you." Nax harshly cautioned, idly tapping his blaster for emphasis. However, this had the opposite effect, and the man turned to Nax. Having already decided that he wasn't going to deal with someone who wasn't going to listen, Nax just shot a bolt directly into his head, slumping him over.

"Son of a bitch, Nax!" Kelah loudly cursed, with Katy and Sidewinder joining in quickly to chide him.

Nax simply gave an annoyed shrug. "I warned him, and he didn't listen. Too bad for him." he said as if this was a completely unjustified reaction. He was about to continue, when Kyra poked him in the back to get his attention, before pointing at where the man had been.

In his place was now a very large, and very angry mottled alien with an orange-brown hide and a face uglier than an Ugnaught's. The skin of its former appearance strewn about the floor around it, looking more like a deflated balloon than what was supposed to be a person. The alien flashed a manic grin. "…Sekhuo is _very_ upset with you, meatsacks!" he said in a psychotic voice, before positioning himself as if he were about to charge.

They collectively realized what his plan of attack was, and scattered as soon as he charged, but instead of running out the room or into a wall, the alien's arms lengthened to cover the room, and as he charged, managed to grab Kyra and Nax, pulling them into a bone crushing embrace that was only made manageable by the armor they were wearing, but only barely.

The alien looked to Nax, and its wicked grin intensified. "…Sekhuo remembers you…" it said in a low, hungry voice, before opening its gaping maw to reveal a 'tongue' that opened like flower petals to reveal a mouth lined with teeth, gnashing and waiting to feast. Looking for options, Nax spotted his Deecee on the floor several feet away. Thinking fast, Nax struggled for his knife, and before the alien could react, he managed to free the blade from its sheath, managing to jab it into the approaching tongue. Both the tongue and the alien seemed to scream in an unholy unison of what sounded like hundreds of voices at once, and the alien stumbled back, letting Nax and Kyra go after some extra struggling on their part.

Nax dived for the Deecee, while Kyra took the opportunity to unload with her blasters, putting bolt after bolt from her '44 and CR-2, and yet despite its increasingly grizzly wounds, the alien just would not go down and die. Nax quickly grabbed the Deecee off the ground, reinserted the loose magazine, and hosed down the alien in a spray of blaster fire, the ammo counter in the magazine ticking down to empty. When the magazine ran dry, the alien was _still_ alive, and now it had recovered enough to try charging someone again.

This time, it picked Kyra as its target, and reformed its arms into what could only be described as giant battering rams. Kyra had accidentally backed herself into a corner, and was just now realizing this, as she started to visibly panic at her mistake. As soon as Nax saw what was about to happen, he threw the Deecee to the floor and went into a dead run, leaping onto the back of the alien before it could charge Kyra. With a fierce roar, the alien tried to shake him off, but he dug his heels into the alien's back. Realizing his knife was still stuck in the tongue of the alien and not wanting to find out if his dad put a set of knuckleplate vibro-daggers in the suit or not, Nax pointed the whipcord directly at its neck and fired, the hook punching through the hide and perfectly embedding itself, causing the alien to roar in pain, now gurgling from having its throat punctured. Working quickly, Nax wrapped the fibercord around the alien's neck to be as tight as possible, fighting against the bucking bantha that seemed to have roused itself within the alien. When he was done, he leapt off the back of the beast, and began pulling the fibercord, causing the alien to stumble backwards a bit, before grabbing onto its own end of the cord and pulling back, moving Nax considerably closer. "Kelah!" he shouted, and without him needing to speak further, Kelah ran over and grabbed hold of the cord, her augmented strength helping greatly to turn the tide in their favor, if only for a few moments.

Kyra had evidently taken the time Nax used to tie the alien's neck to get out of the way, and ran over to join the two of them, but just as she did, the cord began to pull apart. "It's not gonna hold!" Kelah shouted, sounding overexerted. Three blaster shots rang out from behind them, coming from their left and hitting the alien in the back, the sudden shock from being shot enough to make its grasp falter for but a moment, and Sidewinder took the opportunity to shock the alien as it fell over backwards. As soon as he realized the alien was toppled, Nax released the fibercord from the launcher, sending it to lash at the alien's back. The alien landed on the ground with a heavy thud befitting of its weight, but it was, against all odds, still alive. It moved to get up, but Katy quickly rolled up and sprayed him with CryoBan, freezing him in place. "…Master, I've…" the alien gurgled out in a pathetic display. "…failed… you…?" it continued, its voice growing weaker and more distant. The tongue lolled out of its mouth as its head rolled to the side, knife still attached. Carefully, Nax reached down and yanked the blade out, flicking it in the air out of disgust.

Kyra kicked the alien's head. "Is it still alive?" she questioned, sounding unsure of what would happen if it were.

Kelah drew her arm blade and stabbed it in the alien's head. "Now it is." she said confidently, re-sheathing it while Nax went to go pick up the Deecee. "…So, this is his torture room?" Kelah said out loud, and Kyra shrugged in response.

"Guess so." she replied, still looking at the body of the alien. "…but why would an Anzat need a torture room?" she questioned, before looking at the end of the room and noticing what the alien had been hiding behind his massive bulk. The others noticed, too, and quickly ran up.

Chained to the wall was a heavily emaciated Zeltron man, who barely had the strength to lift his head. "…Heh, never thought anyone'd be crazy enough to come down here for an old man like me." he said in a dry, raspy voice. "Didn't expect two Mandos, either."

"…We didn't know anyone was down here." Kelah replied as she pulled her fusion cutter out and began to break the restraints, slowly freeing the man. Once he was freed, Nax caught him and held him to help support his weight.

"Can you walk?" Nax asked, about to take a step forward.

The man shook his head meekly. "'Fraid not. I've been chained up there for Svala knows how long, it's a miracle I can even move my damn mouth..." he murmured in response.

The commlink buzzed in Nax's ear, before automatically turning itself on, with Nevda's voice coming through. _"Hey, uh, scanner's going off."_ she said, alerting them all to their situation. _"You've got about twenty minutes before the Imps show up, so I'd get what we came for and get the hell out of there."_

"Got it, thanks Nevda." Kelah responded through the comms, and quickly began to devise a plan. "Nax, you wanna take him to the ship? We'll clear the place out."

Nax nodded, carrying the Zeltron over his shoulder, trying to keep him from getting hurt. "Don't forget to take the paintings – they might be worth something. A little extra spending money never hurt, especially with what we're pulling." he suggested, and Kyra nodded in agreement, before the group split, Nax taking the Zeltron with him, while the others scoured the apartment.

"…Your name was Nax, right?" the Zeltron asked.

"Strag, yeah." he responded, and the Zeltron went silent for a moment, as if trying to remember his own name after so long.

"…Markan, my name is Markan…" he finally said, his voice getting increasingly weak.

Looking at him from the corner of his viewplate, Nax raised an eyebrow. "Why were you down there?" he questioned, only for him to get no response. Wondering if the Zeltron had died, he quickly realized that he had simply chosen not to answer.

Nax opened the front door to the building, poked his head out, and moved quickly once he saw that the streets were abandoned, heading into the back alley they had entered from. "…I was down there for… torture. The Anzat, he was using me to feed…" Markan finally answered.

"But I thought Anzat feeding is fatal?"

"…Zeltrons are a special case." Markan answered, which only aroused Nax's curiosity further. "…We're both telepathic species, and Anzat can somehow use that to feed off of us _without_ killing us. Usually, we just go hollow after a few days in their hands."

This was news to Nax, especially the idea of whatever a 'hollow' was, but that could be answered later. For now, his curiosity was on how Markan had survived so long. "…If he kept you as long as he did, what kept you going through the torture?"

Markan paused again. "…My love for my daughter." he choked out as Nax neared the landing bay where the ship was docked.

* * *

The Anzat had just finished another set of hunts – more snacks than anything else. A few Twi'leks, some Bith, and a nosy Devaronian brat that had gotten into his business. Nothing too special, but the Bith were a travelling band, who would make for some fascinating stories.

As he neared closer to his home, he heard the telltale sound of wailing airspeeder sirens. Believing it to be just some fire elsewhere, he continued, unabated. However, as he got closer to his home, he found that the sirens were getting closer, not further, to the point where he could see the lights brushing against the walls of hab blocks and apartment buildings with an orange glow in the air.

As he rounded the corner, however, his concerns were confirmed when he saw that plasma fires were scorching his home, being battled by droid firefighters.

Either the prisoner had gotten free and set fire to the place, or, more likely, this was a targeted attack. However, the realization of what his home burning suddenly meant to him hit him in the chest like a bantha herd – every one of his trophies had likely been melted away, as well as his countless masterpieces and unfinished stories.

The building could easily be replaced, but the countless hours, nay, _years_ of his life he had dedicated to his work had just gone up in smoke.

And all he could do was watch.

* * *

Nax set Markan on the couch in the lounge, and Zeethree fetched him a bottle of water, which he opened and immediately gave to Markan, helping him hold the bottle. Kyra was silently watching the scene with Katy and Sidewinder, while Kelah had gone to the cockpit to talk with Nevda.

As Markan drank the bottle, Nax crushed it and tossed it into the trash, before hearing footsteps down the corridor. He turned to look, and Markan tried as well, and it turned out to have been Lexi, looking at the two of them from the archway, specifically, she was looking – no – _staring_ at Markan. Tears began to well up in her eyes. "…D…dad?" Lexi meekly choked out, and Markan immediately seemed a thousand times more energized than he had been earlier.

"Lexi!" Markan shouted back, and Lexi quickly ran over to embrace her father, weeping with joy.

* * *

 **This would have gone up a few hours earlier, but I fucking had paperwork to fill out which took way longer than it realistically should have, so you get the one year anniversary chapter about twenty minutes before the end of the day.**

 **I had some trivia shit prepped, but I'm tired, so it goes in the next chapter.**

' **Till next time!**

 **-Tweak**


	16. Breach of Security

**So, I'm writing this the day after chapter 15 went up, and now that it's out I can think clearly about what would have happened that I had cut out:**

 **-The Anzat was originally supposed to be there in the basement with Markan, instead of Sekhuo, but with the way the fight played out in my head as well as the way I had designed it would have required him to die, and I have plans for him, so Sekhuo ate shit instead.**

 **-Sekhuo and the Anzat would have had a sort of Cioccolata/Secco relationship, and in fact, they were the main inspiration for the Anzat and Sekhuo. While I goofed on my end and didn't develop the relationship enough before killing Sekhuo, you can see some of it in the opening part of chapter 13.**

 **-I briefly toyed with the idea that the Anzat had fed on Lexi's mom after the magtrain attack ten years before Pulsar Company, but quickly dropped it due to not liking it as much. Her name would have been revealed as Luxura, which is a name I still like and am going to run with in the future.**

 **To speak on Star Wars news, the trailer for High Republic sent my fear reflexes into overdrive. Everything about that storyboard midway through set off so many goddamned warning bells in my head. Looks like fucking SHIET, and I want Potter fans to fuck off from Star Wars forever.**

 **Haven't watched Clone Wars Season 7 though, I need to get on that shit.**

 **Read and review.**

* * *

Nax and Kyra watched as Lexi wept tears of grateful joy, embracing her dad. "…Dad…" she sniffled out, her voice cracking. Markan smiled and ran his frail, nearly skeletal hand through her hair in a comforting manner. "…Dad…" she repeated, her crying picking up. "…I thought you were dead. Where the hell have you been all this time?"

Markan made a 'shh' sound as he comforted Lexi. "…I'm so sorry, sweetie." he murmured quietly, just barely loud enough for Kyra and Nax to hear. "…It's just that… after your mom died, the gambling and the drinking got hold of me again. Too many debts got racked up with the wrong crowds. I had a lot of people who wanted my head on a platter." he explained slowly, and Lexi gave him a puzzled look. "…I could take it and bluff my way out of that a lot of times when they came for me, but then they started threatening to go after you, Lexi." Markan continued, tightening his grip on his daughter. "…So, I ran away to get them away from you."

Lexi looked… angry?

No, not angry. Confused, and hurt, as if Markan had just taken a knife and stabbed her in the gut.

"Y…you ran?" Lexi asked, suddenly sounding extremely heartbroken. Markan silently nodded in shame, and Lexi pulled herself away. "…You ran." she repeated to herself, the words she was hearing not making any sense to her. "…You ran, and left me to fend for myself!" she shouted, tears beginning to flow freely.

Markan tried to sit up as best he could to try and calm Lexi down. "Lexi, I'm sorry-" he tried to apologize, but Lexi cut him off.

"Sorry doesn't cut it!" she wailed, stepping away from Markan. "Do you have any, and I mean _ANY_ idea what I've been through?!" she poised angrily, and Markan seemed to shrink in the face of her wrath. "Hell, did you even _think_ of what could have happened to me, a little ten year old Zeltron girl, being left alone on one of the most dangerous levels of Coruscant?!"

"No, but-"

"Of course you didn't!" Lexi shouted, her voice rife with sorrow. "You drank and gambled your worries about mom away, and then when it came to bite you, you abandoned me to save your own skin!" she ranted, her rage, grief, and sadness mixing together with years of abandonment. Lexi quickly looked around as if she was going to throw something at him, but she gave up and stormed off to the crew quarters in a rage. "You self-serving _asshole!_ " she screamed, slamming the door behind her. Zeethree appeared in the corridor, alongside Katy and Arfive, wondering what all the commotion was.

Nax and Kyra moved to go after her, but Markan trying to appear sympathetic caught their attention, only serving to earn disgusted and disdainful glares from the pair. "You know what, Markan?" Nax said, his voice cold as ice. "If you weren't half starved to death, I'd beat the hell out of you myself." he threatened, before heading down the corridor with Kyra in tow. The complete shift in attitude from Nax when he had rescued him to now was night and day to Markan, and he retreated in the face of Nax's ire.

Calmly approaching the door as the droids watched, Nax pressed his ear against the door and heard Lexi crying. Hesitant, he pulled back and gently knocked three times. _"Go away."_ Lexi said, her voice muffled and shaken.

"It's just us, Lexi." Nax said calmly, although he was extremely wary of a potential backlash from her. "…Can we come in?"

There was a pause in her crying, and the lock on the door clicked open, and the pair quickly went through, shutting it behind them, the droids not protesting out of respect for her, even though they were more or less in the dark.

Lexi was half-buried under her sheets, her bangs covering the entire left side of her face, leaving only her right eye exposed, red from crying, and her face flushed and wet. Tears were still streaming down her face, and she would occasionally sniffle or whimper. Immediately upon seeing this, Kyra moved to hug Lexi, at which point her emotional dam burst, and she let it all out, holding on tight to Kyra as the both of them tried to console her. "I can't believe that asshole!" she cried out in anguish as Kyra's shoulder grew damp. "He abandoned me for ten years! _Ten years!_ All because he couldn't pay back his debts and bar tabs!" Lexi continued, at this point bordering on raving.

Kyra ran her hand through Lexi's hair as she cried. "I can't possibly imagine abandoning my own kids to fend for themselves in a hellhole like this." she said, at a complete loss for any more words.

Nax, on the other hand, had a silent, raging fire being stoked inside of him. Where his parents had fled to Tatooine, had him and his brother, and planned to raise the two of them as best they could in their situation, Lexi's dad just abandoned her to die. Even under the guise of him fleeing to take the attention away from her, he still left his ten year old daughter alone in one of the most dangerous parts of the Core. She's lucky to have grown up the way she did, let alone even be alive. Nax reached out to wipe the tears from her face. "Lexi," he started, his expression apprehensive and unsure. "…maybe it's best that you grew up without him."

Lexi opened her eye to look at him, more than a little bit of confusion stirring with her grief. "…What do you mean by that?" she asked, her voice cracking, even sounding a little bit hoarse.

"I mean if your dad is the type to abandon his kid when the going gets tough, then you're probably better off without him. Who knows what you'd have become with him still around." Nax elaborated, and the possibilities ran through Lexi's mind, her expression becoming dimmer and dimmer, so Nax pulled Kyra and Lexi into a hug of his own to comfort her. "Besides that, I like you the way you are. Suns can only imagine what we'd be like if any of us were even a little bit different."

Lexi murmured an appreciative sound, before pulling away and wiping her tears away. "…Thanks, guys…" she quietly said, before pulling herself under her covers, much more stable now. "…I just… I just need a little time to myself." Lexi requested, and the pair nodded in understanding.

"Of course, Lexi." Nax said as he pulled her in for another hug. "We'll always be here for you. Promise."

Lexi smiled, enjoying the moment, before pulling away, wiping the tears in her eyes one final time, Lexi offered the two of them a grateful smile. "…Thank you." she simply said, and the pair nodded, before almost turning to leave. "…Wait." Lexi suddenly called out, and Nax and Kyra stopped. "…Before I forget, I sliced those datapads some more, and I keep seeing references to something called Mau-Sanir."

Nax nodded as he opened the door, noting the name. "I'll try and dig into it later. Don't worry about it, Lexi – just get some rest." he said, and with that, the pair left the room. The droids had dispersed, leaving Nax alone with Kyra. He began to head to the cockpit, and she followed him. "You think she's gonna be alright?" he asked.

Kyra made an 'mhm' sound as she trailed behind Nax. "Lexi's a lot tougher than she looks, even after today. She'll make it." she opined, before pulling herself closer to Nax, almost accidentally tripping him up. "If she can endure months of torture, abuse, and slavery, she can get through anything."

Nodding in agreement, Nax looked down at Kyra. "Shame about her dad being a piece of bantha shit." he blurted out with little regard as to whether Markan would hear him or not.

"Hard to imagine abandoning your kid in this hellpit just because you couldn't pay back your debts." Kyra replied, sounding uncharacteristically cold and indifferent to whatever Markan's plight may have been. "Jackass." she sneered.

Arfive strolled out from the cockpit corridor, with Sidewinder trailing beside him, the two of them engaged in some sort of heated debate that Nax couldn't understand, but judging from their tones, Arfive was winning, or at least, he was, until he stopped to look at Nax. Arfive let out a low series of chirps, before finishing with a long tone, asking about Lexi. "She'll be fine, Arfive." Kyra said, and Arfive responded with another low drone, before he continued his stroll through the ship with Sidewinder.

The pair continued down the corridor, entering the cockpit, and Kelah and Nevda both looked back, gave a quick nod, and then went back to work on their datapads. Nax sat down, plugged his datapad into the communicator console, put the comm headset on, and called Vopa, who quickly picked the call up. "How'd it go?" he asked, his voice coming through a little scuffed.

"Cleared the place out, got a bunch of datapads and paintings signed with the name 'Caliban Bullen', does that mean anything to you?" Nax asked as he idly tapped the console.

Vopa's response sounded surprised. "…Bullen's a famous artist. If you've got real pieces of his, then just one is worth a pretty small fortune." he responded, and Nax's mind spun at the hypothetical mountains of credits the paintings they had brought back could get them. "What's on the datapads?" Vopa asked, shaking Nax free of his profit-induced stupor.

"Dunno, that's what we're trying to find out, Vopa." he responded, before something else shot to the front of his mind. "…That said, though, we've found Lexi's dad, half-starved." he said, lowering his voice as he exchanged looks with Kyra.

Nax heard a slam from Vopa's end of the comm. "You found Markan?!" he heard Eath say in the background. "I thought he was gone for good, offed by some spice junkie, or worse!"

Cracking his fingers against the console, Nax gave a quick glance out the cockpit window as the skyscrapers flew by in the neon-lit eternal night of the underworld. "Yeah, we found him, alright." Nax responded, carefully picking his words as he heard the comm being handed over to Eath. "Lexi's pissed with him."

Confusion made itself clear in Eath's voice. "What? Why?" he asked, still adjusting the comm to fit comfortably.

"Turns out, he disappeared because he ended up taking on so much debt that collectors started threatening Lexi if he didn't pay up, so he ran to draw them away from her." Nax explained, and Eath sounded like he had just choked on something.

"He disappeared because of _that_?!" Eath blurted out after momentarily struggling to control his reaction.

"Yeah." Nax simply answered, and Eath sounded like he still couldn't believe what he had just heard, but Nax pressed on regardless. "Lexi's pissed with him, and I can't really blame her, so do you have a place where I can let him off to be taken care of? I don't have anywhere to keep him, not that I want him on my ship any longer than he needs to be." he asked, shifting his look back to the console.

He first heard the communicator shifting hands again, and then heard typing from the other end of the comm, alongside a few unintelligible mumbles. "…I'll send a place to your navcomputer and let them know you're coming. Now, if that's all, I need to get back to work." Vopa said, his voice a little distant, and Nax noted the incoming data.

Nax paused for a second, and after debating whether or not to mention this in front of Kelah and Nevda, made an affirmative grunt. "Can you do me a favor and look into something called Mau-Sanir?"

There was a short pause. "…Sure thing, Nax." Vopa replied and Nax, thanked Vopa, shut the comms off, and set the headset back on its rest.

As soon as he set it down, Kelah looked back to him. "We heard everything with Lexi, you know."

Standing up from the console, Nax leaned against it, crossing his arms and looking back at her, while Kyra took the seat he had just vacated. "I'm not surprised. All I can really ask you to do is not bother Lexi about it." he requested, and Kelah nodded in understanding.

The four of them remained silent for a few minutes. "…Hey, Nax?" Nevda asked as she reached up to adjust the switches for the repulsorlifts. "How modded out is the ship?"

"Near stock." Nax flatly replied, causing Nevda and Kelah to both lurch forward with a wheeze. "The hyperdrive is a class one now, but otherwise it's had nothing done to it."

Nevda looked back, a cheeky grin on her face. "When we're done here, remind me to fix that for you. I'll stick some Null Bolts onto her, and she'll be able to kick the hell out of any system patrol craft and 'vette that comes after you." she said, positively gleaming at the chance to work on a YT-series.

Kelah shook her head and then looked back to Nax. "Now you've done it, Nax. She's not gonna stop until it barely resembles a YT." she half-joked, and Nax smirked as Nevda playfully pushed Kelah in response.

* * *

The Anzat flashed his identification to the door guards to the storehouse, identifying him as Arto Tekti. The guards quickly let him through, fearing the risk of incurring his wrath, as he was already on the warpath. Quickly barreling through a logistics officer and her assistant, Tekti headed straight for the back room.

Tekti dug his hand into the control panel of the door enough to break the casing on it, and forcibly threw the door to the side, entering the command room. More than a few eyes were on Tekti now – several security officers wearing simple green robes with plastoid vests had their slugthrowers locked and loaded, the barrels just above their hips, ready to spring into action if need be. There was a loud sigh from the other end of the room, as well as the sound of someone knocking their knuckles against metal in a repetitive pattern. "Tekti." a deep voice called out. "You could have just knocked, you know."

Tekti let out a low snarl as he calmed himself. Compared to these mere children, he was an ancient, and there was little point in getting worked up with them. "Arch-Canon." Tekti responded in a cool, icy tone, with a little bit of added malice to maintain control over the conversation. "Your 'plan' for inciting a war against the Ascendancy has not only cost me my home, but my life's work as well."

Tekti couldn't tell through the Arch-Canon's mask, but he instinctively felt the lack of care for his plight emanating from the man. "That's all too bad, Tekti." he responded in his usual uncaring tone. "Good luck with that, though."

A scowl crossed Tekti's face, although it wasn't visible to the Pathers. "I don't think you understand the situation, Arch-Canon." he interrupted, as a tentacle revealed itself through his mask, sending the guards even closer to the edge. "Unless you provide me with some way of tracking the Ascendancy agents who have destroyed some of my greatest works, I find that it would be better if I simply slaughtered everyone in this room and reported your cells to the Imperials." Tekti threatened, his tone growing ever colder and more malicious. The guards had had enough now, and raised their weapons at Tekti, only for the Arch-Canon to force them to stand down.

"Sir-" one of the guards protested, but it was of little effect on the Arch-Canon, who raised his hand to quiet the discontent among his ranks.

"We will _not_ be shooting our associate here." the Arch-Canon declared, looking over his guards for any sign of rebellion. Thankfully, there were none, or they weren't stupid enough to openly display it. "As a matter of fact, we'll be giving him exactly what he wants." he continued, before turning back to Tekti. "What, exactly, did you have in mind?"

Tekti crossed his arms, clearly frustrated that he had to waste his time with these shenanagins. "I need something that can track a scent across a hell-world like this." he responded, pausing for a moment to think of something else to say, before disregarding that and folding his hands together.

Behind his mask, the Arch-Canon smiled. "As it so happens, we have _exactly_ what you're looking for." he said, before turning to one of the guards. "Bring out the B.O.W." he commanded, and the guard made an unsure motion, to which the Arch-Canon shooed him. The guard left in short order, and the Arch-Canon returned his attention to Tekti. "Tell me, Tekti, are you familiar with Compdogs?" he questioned in a smug manner.

Tekti raised an eyebrow instinctively. "Moderately. I've owned several of them. Fascinating creatures." he replied casually. "It's very strange that creatures like them can naturally exist and still retain their original base forms, even though for every successful breed, there's around thirty different dead ends. It's nothing short of a biological miracle."

As soon as Tekti finished waxing about the nature of the Compdog, two Devaronians built like brick walls came in carrying a large kennel, with something inside snapping and snarling at its handlers, attracting the attention of everyone in the room. Multiple wary guards pointed their slugthrowers at the kennel, much to the ire of the Devaronians who had the misfortune of carrying whatever was inside. The pair set the kennel down in front of Tekti, before quickly backing away, while the Arch-Canon approached calmly. "Allow me to present to you…" the Arch-Canon said as he leaned over the release on the kennel, evidently having a flair for the overly dangerous and dramatic. "…the Blind Compdog!" he said with an unnatural glee in his voice as he hit the release and backed away.

The snarling quieted down as the kennel opened, and out came not the front of a Compdog, but rather a twitching mass of a mouth that looked like it opened like a flower. The rest of the beast quickly followed, and it only superficially resembled a Compdog. The animal retained its thick leathery hide, three legs, and the sonicor organs, as evidenced by the five blue stripes that ran horizontally across its back that occasionally glowed and pulsed. However, the legs had been seemingly enlarged into massive claws, not unlike those of the Kath hound, or a Pantani Wolf, built for mauling prey. The changes to the creature didn't end there, though – it had a large tail that looked at least partly chitinous, which curled up and over the beast, ending in an oversized stinger that looked like it could punch clean through durasteel. Finally, as if to put the icing on the cake, the animal 'bloomed' its mouth open, revealing rows upon rows of serrated teeth, all centering around a voraciously hungry maw.

Tekti reached out to the beast's mind, and was greeted with not one mind, but several. Their thoughts were incoherent and unfocused, much like the mind of a domesticated blurrg, or a bantha. The only consistency they had was their desire to know why they had been disturbed from their rest, and when their next meal would be. Effortlessly, Tekti dominated the minds, with no visible reaction from the beast that could tip the Pathers off about what he had just done. "She's a beaut, isn't she?" one of the guards commented, before receiving multiple glares from his comrades.

The Arch-Canon looked down at the beast and ran his finger along the sonicor organs, causing the creature to shudder from the sensation. "She is the product of many months of research and development, Tekti. Modifying a Compdog this extensively is no easy task, but the end result is very much worth it. We only need to field test her tracking capabilities before we can begin mass production." he said calmly, releasing himself from the animal, not showing the slightest bit of fear. "She can help you find your quarry, Tekti."

Tekti looked at the creature, unsure of what to do. Much to his, and everyone else's surprise, the beast stood up on its hind leg, getting up to about chest level to Tekti, revealing the vestigial, but still functioning, beak mouth, quietly chirping at him, even though the gurgling from the new flower-mouth was much louder. "She can sense the pheromones and smell of every known sentient and non-sentient in the galaxy, and track them across an entire planet just with a single sample of the target you want."

Weighing his options, Tekti dominated the minds of the beast once again, and ordered it to follow him, and the two left in complete silence. The Arch-Canon crossed his arms as Reika entered the room, seemingly waiting on Reika for something, and as she looked around, she saw the issue. "If you laserbrains keep standing around that kennel and don't get back to your stations, I'll splatter you myself." she threatened harshly, enough that everyone scrambled for their posts.

Satisfied with her handling of their bumbling, the Arch-Canon beckoned Reika to the command table. "You wanted to see me?" she asked, standing fully at attention.

'Yes," he replied, before leaning over the command table and pulling up a hologram of a Pather cell base a few levels down. "The Mau-Sanir team have been lagging behind on their progress reports. I'm not exactly sure what they're doing with what we're sending them, but I'd like it if you would check up on them and get the project moving again." the Arch-Canon ordered, fiddling with the hologram as he spoke.

"By any means necessary?" Reika questioned, feeling as if she already knew the answer.

The Arch-Canon gave enough of an exaggerated eyeroll that Reika could tell he had done it, even behind his mask. "What do you think I keep you around for?" he jokingly questioned, before getting serious. "Do try not to kill anyone, though. Unless they're traitors, in which case, feel free to deal with them how you see fit."

Reika grinned, bowed her head, and then left for the base.

* * *

Turning the corner down the alleyway, Reika moved out of the way of a drunken bum, who had almost staggered his way into her, mumbling something in a Concord Dawn accent about the Clone Wars being a lie. Ignoring that, she pressed towards the entrance to the base, finding two guards who were lazing about at the entrance, their rifles clumsily slung over their bodies, idly discussing inane things that were of no interest to Reika. One of the guards, a male Twi'lek, gave Reika a passing glance. "Hi chuba da naga, sleemo?" he asked in Huttese, chuckling to himself, and his partner joined in, more out of obligation than anything else. Reaching into her coat, Reika produced her identification and flashed it to the Twi'lek, who promptly jumped straight up at the realization of just who she was, swearing profusely.

"Your life, if you don't tell me where I can find the person in charge." Reika casually threatened, patting her holster for emphasis.

The Twi'lek's human partner promptly threw an empty ration can at his head. "Dumbshit 'Lek!" he cursed as the Twi'lek rubbed his temple. Knocking his hand against the wall to get her attention, the man pointed inside the building with his thumb. "The bossman's in the lab downstairs. Take the stairs on the left, lab's at the end of the hall." he answered, and, satisfied, Reika pushed the door in, but not before giving the Twi'lek a menacing glare, to which he cowered in response.

The main entry area was in slight disarray and disrepair - a couple guards were posted around, their guns slung under their shoulders, but they were otherwise inattentive to Reika's entrance. Several workers were also milling about between the various rooms, as well as the downstairs labs. Heading downstairs, the change in environment was immediate. The lab level looked like it had been meticulously cleaned a thousand times over by cleaning droids, even though the Path forbade their use. Heading down the hall, Reika could hear the muffled sounds of lab equipment working in the side rooms, with lab workers discussing findings and research that, while of interest to the Path, meant nothing to her.

There were two guards posted at the door to the lab at the end of the hall, both humans wearing stolen Clone Hazmat gear, with the symbol of the Path crudely drawn on the chestplate. They motioned for her to stop, but with a single flash of her identification, they let her through to the main lab.

Inside were two figures, a Zeltron man in a hazmat suit with the helmet off, exposing his mullet, and a Givin, who wore nothing but a simple Path robe that looked at least slightly faded. The Givin hadn't noticed her, but the Zeltron had. He turned, noticed her, and then got the Givin's attention, who promptly turned to face Reika. "Greetings." he said in a monotone voice, sounding like a particularly bored Threepio droid. Reika mentally prepared herself for the equation the Givin would surely ask her. "I am Amhe Rest, head researcher of this facility. I assume you are here regarding our progress reports on Mau-Sanir?" he asked, and surprised that the equation did not come, Reika blinked twice.

She quickly collected herself. "Yes, that's exactly why I'm here. Why _haven't_ you been submitting your reports to the Arch-Canon?" Reika questioned, warily eyeing the Amhe and his Zeltron assistant.

Amhe gave her a blank stare with those black voids his species had their eyes hidden in. "The answer is quite simple, actually. We've been working overtime on perfecting Mau-Sanir. At this stage, the only thing we're concerned with now is the transmission speed and incubation." he answered frankly, his jaw barely moving to accommodate his words, something that unnerved Reika tremendously. "Would you like a demonstration?" Amhe offered, gesturing to a test room where two subjects, both of whom were very much alive, were strapped to operating tables.

Reika gave him a curious look in response, before nodding her head. The Zeltron sighed as he set his helmet on and sealed the suit, heading to the sole door into the room where the two men laid. Amhe beckoned her over to the observation pane, and held his arms behind his back. "The man on the left is a completely natural human being. No genetic enhancements, no cybernetics, purely baseline." he said to her, before shifting his gaze to the man on the right. "This man, however, is a prime specimen of everything your Path hates. We took him right off the street, and it turns out, he's a member of the Ascendancy, no less. Rife with cybernetics and 'enhancements'." Amhe said, saying enhancements with audible disdain. He then bent over, speaking into the microphone at the control panel. "You may begin." he said, and the Zeltron looked back and nodded.

The assistant moved closer to the man on the left and produced a small syringe filled with a light blue liquid, almost looking like bacta. The man instinctively squirmed in his chair as the Zeltron injected the syringe into his arm, only getting more antsy after he pulled it out and stood back. The man seemed to ask a question, only to receive no reply, so he remained strapped to the chair, a nervous expression permanently on his face. A scant minute later, and the first man coughed a few times, although that seemed to be the extent of it, only serving to confuse Reika.

Reika opened her mouth to question what exactly she was waiting for, but right as she was about to speak, the sinner from the Ascendancy started to cough, too. First it was innocuous, as if he were suffering from a cold, but the longer it went on, the more violent the coughing became. Before long, he was coughing up blood and what was possibly chunks of flesh onto the cold metal floor. After he began coughing blood, his body began to twist and contort in unnatural ways, particularly around his right arm and both legs. Blood began to spill from where metal met flesh, and the man finally howled from the pain, having demonstrated immense pain tolerance up until now. The Zeltron was patiently watching the man, while the natural was staring on in shock and horror. Reika and Amhe, though, were observing with scientific curiosity, moreso from Amhe than Reika. With one final attempt to break free of his restraints, the man fell against the chair, limp, blood pouring from most of his orifices and several of his limbs. The Zeltron approached, and after a long look and more than a little prodding with a long medical instrument, confirmed that the man was dead. He then turned back to the natural man, pulled out a blaster, and shot him clean in the head. Amhe then leaned over the console again, pressed several buttons, and a thick yellow gas was sprayed into the room, blocking all sight inside.

Confused, but also fascinated with what she had seen, Reika turned to Amhe. "…What exactly just happened?" she questioned, occasionally shifting her glance between Amhe and the experimentation room.

Amhe turned to face her, and his expression was about as close to a morbid grin as a Givin could manage. "It's very simple." he said, before shifting back to face the clouded room. "The natural was injected with Mau-Sanir. It effectively turned him into an asymptomatic carrier, the only sign of infection being the cough. It then became airborne, and entered the Ascendant's lungs, reacting with his anti-rejection medication to create a most deadly concoction inside of him. It rapidly forced his body into CRS and ARS, which I believe you Pathers are somewhat familiar with – 'know thy enemy' and such." Amhe said, snickering to himself, before quickly regaining composure. "Once his body began to reject his implants, he had a most painful death as each cybernetic limb and augmentation shut down inside of him and was rejected by his body, ultimately causing him to bleed out. Or suffer from massive cardiac arrest."

Impressed, Reika crossed her arms and looked up at Amhe. "So, what's stopping it from happening in naturals?"

Amhe looked back at Reika as if she were stupid, at least from his perspective. From hers, she couldn't tell a damn thing about what Amhe was thinking. "Mau-Sanir requires an anti-rejection drug to catalyze the reaction. Naturals infected with it will only believe they have the common cold, and it will eventually disappear from their system without repeat exposure to other infected, which would be a feat in-and-of itself." he answered, before kneeling under the control console to search for something.

Reika smiled and bowed her head out of respect. "Thank you, Amhe." she said, gleeful that they would finally have an effective weapon to combat the Ascendancy, as well as the Union as a whole.

Amhe quickly came back up from the counter, and handed Reika a datapad. "Take this to your Arch-Canon. It contains our most recent progress report, as well as an expected date for when Mau-Sanir will be ready for deployment." he requested, before turning back to his research. Reika quietly excused herself from the base, report in hand.

* * *

Tekti crept through the cordoned off alleyways leading to his burned-out home, his new Compdog companion following close behind. Perhaps a little too close, however, as he felt the beast's breath against his leg, which played with his nerves like nothing else could.

Cautiously moving closer to the main street, Tekti spotted his open trophy room window, and quickly moved under, slipping inside. The Compdog observed the window for a moment, as if deciding what to do about the obstacle, before it stepped back, ran forward, and slid under, somehow managing to fit its body through, and more surprisingly, managing to make very little noise in doing so. The beast crouched as it landed, before rising up to its full height on all fours, and looking up at Tekti expectantly, sniffing the air.

Tekti took a moment to look around the room, observing the damage done to his precious trophies. He picked one of the sculptures up, one of a Twi'lek musician's brain, or at least, he believed it to be. The sculpture had been practically melted away, with the folds in the brain melding together to form an almost waxlike cast that made the brain nearly unrecognizable to Tekti. Part of the lekku had also come apart, drooping far lower than when he had originally sculpted it. Many more of his trophies told similar stories, and it filled him with a silent rage, incomparable to what any other being could feel. Hundreds of years of work – of carefully cultivating his collection, picking each target, savoring the meal, sculpting them and using their minds like his own plaything, all of that undone in what probably took a few minutes.

Most lives were too short to gain an appreciation for their craft like he had. Only his kin could understand his sorrow.

As he mentally wept over the loss of his collection, he noticed that one of the sculptures had been moved. Moving over and checking the plate, he saw the scarred etchings of the word 'Freeman' on it. Briefly remembering the kill, Tekti noticed the Compdog sniffing the sculpture, before turning its 'head' up, following some sort of trail.

Tekti quickly set the sculpture back down and followed the animal as they slowly moved through the remains of his burned out home, entering the main foyer area. The destruction of his home didn't upset Tekti – it was the loss of his work that angered him. All of the paintings he had set out in the foyer were missing. Not burned or damaged, but stolen, seemingly proven by the fact that the beast occasionally shifted its head to look roughly where the paintings had been hung.

The damage to the foyer was immense, looking less like a fuel line being burst and more like a plasma fire had broken out and ravaged the interior. What was left of his furniture and shelves amounted to little more than small piles of insignificant ash. Furthermore, Tekti also noted that his datapads had been stolen, the sheer notion of someone reading his incomplete work serving to infuriate him more.

More glaringly, however, the entrance to the basement had been left wide open, with the Compdog now heading down into it. Tekti quickly followed. Despite the basement having been the likely source of the fire judging by the scorch marks, the tunnel looked remarkably clear, despite the fire suppression systems obviously having been damaged. Rounding the corner to the second door, Tekti spotted that it, too, was open. While the beast went inside, Tekti examined the door, and found that the side facing outward had no burn marks from the fire, only signs of a fusion cutter being used on the lock. Near the frame was a small melted pile of metal of roughly the same dark steel coloration as the door's lock.

Tekti finally entered the basement proper, and the sight absolutely did not surprise him in the slightest. The entire room was completely and utterly torched, his implements and tools incinerated in the fire along with any equipment he had down here. The chains on the back wall had been melted more or less into the duracrete, but there was no sign of his captive.

What was more pressing, however, was the charred corpse of Sekhuo, lying in the center of the room, with the Compdog waiting patiently by. He had clearly shed his human appearance, judging by the engorged muscles. Tekti flipped his body over onto his stomach. "Oh, Sekhuo…" he said wistfully as he traced the outlines of multiple stab wounds, including one in his skull. The Compdog seemed to take interest in the wounds, sniffing at them. It was then that Tekti noticed the blaster scoring on the few bits of flesh that hadn't been burnt to a crisp. "…Ion bolts? Full auto, too…" he mumbled to himself, before gathering that one of his targets had access to a modified DC-series blaster.

Tekti's investigation was interrupted by the beast suddenly hopping back, opening its mouth to expose its rows of sharp teeth in a low howl. "Hey!" a man shouted from behind, and Tekti spun around to face him. He was an Underworld Police Officer, about a head shorter than Tekti. "This is a restricted area! You're not supposed to be down here!"

Tekti moved to throw the officer on the ground to feed him, but with a seemingly impossible burst of speed, the Compdog charged the officer, locking his head in the beast's titanic mouth and forcing him to the ground. The officer screamed as the Compdog shook and wrestled with him, before there was a sickening snap, and the officer went limp, before falling out of the beast's maw, headless. The beast swallowed, let out a muted roar in victory, and then returned to Tekti, fresh blood dripping from its mouth.

"…Interesting." Tekti remarked, overtaken by a morbid curiosity. "Your new name is Thrasher." he simply said, forcibly imprinting that on the beast's minds, while simultaneously checking to see if she had the scent of his quarry, which, miraculously, she did. "Come." Tekti ordered, leading Thrasher outside of the burnt home and away from the dead officer, whose suit almost certainly sent out an alert to send backup.

The faster they got away, the better. The hunt was on, now, and Tekti would have his revenge.

* * *

When the ship arrived at the place Vopa had arranged, which turned out to be a more or less abandoned park with shockingly little foot traffic and no airspeeder traffic. Men on the ground were waving signal lights at the ship, confirming that they had been waiting for him. Nax landed the ship with some help from Nevda and Arfive, who had quickly grown accustomed to bickering at each other over flight styles. As soon as the ship landed, Nax set down the boarding ramp, showed Vopa's men to Markan, and they carried him away on a stretcher, shocked at his abysmal state.

The group just so happened to pass by Lexi as they were carrying Markan out. The two of them exchanged looks – Markan pleading for forgiveness, while Lexi was sneering at him. "Hey!" one of the men shouted to Nax. "We'll have Vopa let you know whenever he's recovered!"

Nax nodded in acknowledgement as the men went down the boarding ramp, which shut behind them. The engines spooled back up, repulsorlifts kicking in, and Nax felt the jolt of the ship taking off. Lexi walked up to Nax, looking only a little bit better. "How're you feeling?"

"Like shit." Lexi quickly snapped, her bangs drooping down in front of her face, covering her eyes. Lexi practically threw herself onto the lounge seating, brushing her bangs out of the way to look at Nax properly. "I feel betrayed, Nax. He could have gutted me in some back alley and left me to die, and it still wouldn't feel as bad as this."

"I don't blame you." Nax responded as he sat down next to her. Slowly, Lexi began to lean on Nax for some sort of physical comfort. "If you don't mind my asking – what exactly did you expect to happen if you found your dad?"

Lexi remained silent for a while. "…I don't know, Nax." she answered, shaking her head, unsure of what else to say. "I guess I was hoping that he had a good reason for being gone for so long, and that maybe we'd be an actual family again, but…"

"I think that ship's long since jumped away, Lexi." Nax stated as he pulled her closer. "When he left, you were only ten or so, right?" he asked, and Lexi nodded. "You're twenty now – you've become your own person without his influence on you. You're not the same girl he left, and he isn't the person you thought he was. The only connection between you two now is blood."

Making a murmur of acknowledgement, Lexi pulled herself off of Nax and looked him in the eyes. "I suppose you have a point." she quietly mumbled, before leaning back into the seat. "…If anything, I could say that you and Kyra are more of a family to me than he ever was. Hell, you've done _more_ for me in just a few weeks than he ever did in ten years of 'protecting' me."

Nax smiled at her. "I suppose we have, Lexi." he said, before getting up. "Just remember, we look out for each other. Kyra and I won't ever turn you away." he finished, turning to head to the cockpit. To his surprise, Lexi got up with him, following close behind.

The two of them passed by an idling Knockout when Lexi spoke again. "I sliced the last datapad earlier, by the way." she suddenly said, causing Nax to look over his shoulder at her.

"Really, now?" he said, sounding at least a little bit surprised that Lexi had chosen to work, even in the wake of all of this. "What'd you find out about Mau-Sanir?"

"Not much." Lexi answered, shaking her head in disappointment. "Just that it's supposed to play a major role in what the Path intend on accomplishing, which can be nothing short of disaster."

"Sounds like some sort of weapon to me, Lexi."

"That's what I'm thinking, too. None of the datapads went into specifics about what kind of weapon it was, though, which doesn't help us in the slightest."

"Maybe one of the datapads we stole from that Anzat can help us out." Nax proposed as they entered the cockpit corridor.

"Maybe." Lexi responded.

As soon as they entered the cockpit, Kelah looked back at them, waving a datapad. "Hey, we finished slicing the last of the datapads, Nax." she said, looking over to Nevda. "Most of them seem to be half-written novels and stories with no real consistency between them, but all are authored by Caliban Bullen."

"The same artist whose paintings we stole." Nax noted, and Kelah nodded.

"Right." she said, before setting the datapad on the console. "So, we've got three possibilities; one, Caliban Bullen _is_ this Anzat. Two, Caliban lives with the Anzat, the absolute psycho, or three, the Anzat killed Caliban and is taking his place."

"I've got a hundred credits riding on that third one, by the way." Nevda chimed in jokingly as Lexi sat down in the communications console chair.

"...So, did we find anything actually useful, or is it all just a bunch of bantha shit?" Nax questioned, leaning against the wall, hoping that mass of datapads wasn't just a waste of space.

Kelah pulled her bag out and produced a datapad marked with a fresh red stripe on its back. "We did, actually. We found two datapads with logs of Pather interactions. I need to sort through the second one, but this one here has something we can use. Sidewinder?" she called out, and Sidewinder flew out from underneath one of the control consoles, happily twittering at Kelah, before projecting a hologram of some sort of storehouse. "From what I can tell, this is the cell that our Anzat's been interacting with."

Kyra suddenly piped up, scaring Nax, as he didn't even hear her enter. "You sure? It looks kind of small." she asked, moving out of the corridor and standing to Nax's right, looking over the hologram. "I mean, your cell on Tatooine was small," she continued, and Kelah flinched reflexively at the mention of the insurgency. "But this is just one warehouse, you guys had a whole compound."

Kelah looked over to Kelah. "The point of a cell is to be hard to find and harder to dig out, Kyra." she said, before moving her right leg on top of her left. "On Tatooine, there's a lot of empty desert to hide practically in plain sight. That's kind of hard to do on Coruscant when the whole planet is one big city and there's people everywhere. Something like our compound would've been spotted in an instant if it'd been done here."

"Right, here's what I'm thinking;" Nevda spoke up as she attached her scomp link to the navigation computer to start autopiloting the ship. "This is just one cell out of who knows how many. If we're lucky, and I pray to the stars that we are, we'll be able to find some sort of list of the other cells and their locations."

"You think they don't have the foresight to destroy that kind of information?" Kelah questioned, shifting her gaze to Nevda.

"There weren't any traps on the datapads when we sliced them, so I can only assume they don't know the first thing about operational security." Nevda answered back. "Or they're too trusting. Either way, good for us, bad for them."

Nax moved closer to the hologram, which flickered in response to his movement. "Can we get this back on topic, please?" he asked, and Kelah snapped back to look at the hologram.

"Right. As I was saying," she said, getting up and moving over towards Sidewinder. "There's a ventilation shaft at the top of the warehouse. Most warehouses on Coruscant are built the same, so it _should_ lead to their back room, which is probably where they have their command room, or at the very least, something in there we can use to bring down their operation."

Lexi got up and looked at the shaft as Sidewinder zoomed in on it. "Hang on, that duct looks way too small, even for you, Kelah. How're we going to get in?" she questioned, before looking at the hologram some more. "I'm not seeing any roof access, either."

Kelah gave a half-shrug in response. "Who said we were going in?" she said, gesturing with a look over to Sidewinder, who let out a confused 'dwoo?' when all eyes fell upon him.

* * *

Nax tapped on Sidewinder's photoreceptor a few times, much to the droid's displeasure. "Feed coming through alright?" he asked, examining the droid.

" _All good on our end."_ Kelah answered from the ship. Nax then looked across the street, roughly where the Pather warehouse was. Nax and Sidewinder were situated on the rooftop of some empty apartment building, a pretty decent vantage point considering their surroundings.

"Hey, Kelah, remind me, why am I the one babysitting Sidewinder while he does this?" Nax questioned, shooting a sideways glance at the droid, who twittered in offense. "He's your droid, after all."

There was the sound of some sort of package being opened from their end of the comms _. "Because you drew the short straw."_ Kelah responded flatly, before eating something crunchy. _"Besides that, you're the one with Mando gear."_

Nax gave an annoyed sigh as he triple-checked Sidewinder for what must have been the fifth time. "Kelah, you have blades in your arms, and more cybernetics than I could shake a stick at."

There was a brief pause, before Nax heard a snicker from Kelah's end of the comms. _"Touché."_ Kelah quipped back.

"…You know, if you wanted Sidewinder to be protected, you _could_ send Kyra down. She's the only other person with Mandalorian armor, after all." Nax suggested, before stepping back from Sidewinder. Kelah turned away from the communicator, and Nax heard her say something to Kyra.

" _She's coming."_

"Tell her to bring my dad's rifle. It's in the hold."

Kelah turned away from the communicator. _"Nax says to bring his dad's rifle!"_ she shouted back. _"There. Happy?"_

"Very."

Several minutes later, and Kyra showed up, carrying the Aug2 under her shoulder. "Heard you got lonely up here." she teased as she handed the rifle and ammo over to Nax, before pressing down on her commlink. "We good to go?"

" _Yeah, we're good. Let me just…"_ Kelah mumbled, and the two of them heard typing from Kelah's end. Suddenly, a video feed of Sidewinder's perspective showed up in the corner of their HUDs. _"There we go. You two getting that feed?"_

Nax's feed bugged out briefly, showing an excessive amount of static, but he fixed it by simply slapping the side of his helmet. "We're good." he said, before turning to face the warehouse. "So, what do you want us to do here?"

Nevda's voice cracked through the comms. _"We just need you two to sit there and keep watch while Sidewinder goes in through the roof."_ she said as Sidewinder quickly floated off towards the Pather warehouse.

"That's it?" Nax questioned.

" _That's it. If he gets spotted, you two need to provide cover fire for him. Any patrols show up, you break comm-silence and let us know."_ Kelah answered, with more typing coming from her end. _"Simple as that."_

"Got it." Nax finished, shutting his comms off alongside Kyra, and the two positioned themselves to overlook the warehouse.

Nax flipped down his rangefinder to check the distance to the warehouse. About fifty meters or so. Drawing the Aug2, Nax began to zero the scope. "Hey, Nax," Kyra said, drawing her '44 and fiddling with it. "Your dad was a Mandalorian, right? Why'd he use an old bolt rifle over something like a blaster?"

"Beats the hell out of me, Kyra." Nax answered as he finished zeroing the rifle. "Maybe he liked slugthrowers more. I never thought to ask him." he continued, shouldering the rifle to check if he had zeroed it properly. Satisfied, he set the rifle against a nearby duct. "…Not like I can ask him now, anyways." he quietly muttered. Kyra glanced over at him, and even under the helmet, he could tell she was concerned about something. "Something wrong?"

Kyra shook her head. "A little." she said, still toying with the blaster. "It's about Markan."

Nax looked in the corner of his vision and saw that Sidewinder had now entered the air vent after cutting his way through the grating, and then he looked back to Kyra. "Worried your family is like him?" he asked, and she shamefully nodded. "…Kyra, the odds of your family being selfish pieces of shit like Markan are so astronomically low that it's really not worth worrying about."

"Why?" Kyra pressed, holstering her blaster and crossing her arms. "It happened to Lexi – why couldn't it happen to me?"

Nax walked over to her and looked out across the street. "Well, for starters, you probably weren't born in a shithole like this." he stated, gesturing to the cityscape surrounding them. "I mean, here we are, fighting honest-to-Suns terrorists trying to spark a massive gang war in the underworld, just as an example of how bad places like this can get. Things like that tend to leave an impression on people."

Kyra let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. "…So, if you don't think I'm from Coruscant or any other crime-infested place, then where do you think I'm from?"

Pausing to think, Nax pursed his lips. "Judging by how you acted in Chalmun's when we met, and going off the way you talk? Somewhere in the Core or Mid-Rim. Probably Alderaan or Naboo, if I wanted to get specific."

"Really?" Kyra responded, mocking offense. "Two of the most peaceful planets in the galaxy, and you think I'm from one of them?" she continued, and Nax could practically see the smirk she had on. "You've got to be joking."

Nax had caught on, but instead of going along with it, he kept serious. "Kyra, you sound way more posh than anyone I've ever met. Not to mention, compared to Lexi and I, you're a pretty damn innocent soul." he elaborated, giving Kyra some second thoughts about where she had been born. "Remember when we were forced into joining with the insurgents? The way you reacted to get their leader to stop whatever he was doing to me – nobody except someone from Alderaan or Naboo would have acted like that for someone they barely knew. Of course, I have no actual _proof_ , but…" he continued, cracking his fingers against whatever constituted a railing. His attention suddenly switched from Kyra to the street. "We'll talk about this later." Nax quickly said, before he switched his comms back on. "Kelah, someone's going inside the storehouse."

" _What do they look like?"_ Kelah asked, now much more attentive.

Immediately shouldering the rifle and looking down the scope, Nax pressed his comms again. "Hard to tell. Looks like a woman," he said, being interrupted as the person turned to the side, letting Nax get a look at their profile. "Yeah, it's a woman. She's got kinda raven-black hair flowing out the back of her hood, she's got a long gray trenchcoat, a white strip of hair in her bangs, and she's got a full face mask on." he reported, scanning his surroundings to see if there was anyone else approaching.

" _Anyone else?"_

"No."

" _Alright, Sidewinder, stay on the lookout for this person."_ Kelah advised, and Nax killed his comms again before Sidewinder could respond. However, he fiddled with his control panel, and enlarged the view from Sidewinder's perspective as he floated through the tight ventilation system, just narrowly having managed to avoid an arc of electricity in front of him. Sidewinder quietly cursed in binary, just audible enough for his internal microphone to pick it up.

Proceeding through the vents, Sidewinder went down a long vent, taking a left at the first T-section he found, and then taking a right at the next T-section, making sure to avoid bumping anything. Finally, he came roughly to where the command room should have been, and looked down through the vent, seeing both the woman Nax had reported outside, and another robed figure. "You're back earlier than expected." the other figure said, revealing himself to be a man. "What did you find out about the Mau-Sanir team?"

The woman produced a datapad that Sidewinder was carefully tracking, and as soon as the man took it out of her hands and turned it on, he had copied the screen to his local system, but zoomed in on the datapad anyways.

 _Arch-Canon,_

 _I trust that this report finds you in good health and even greater spirits. Below is my progress update on the strain of auREJ-3, also known as Mau-Sanir;_

 _Infectivity and lethality are at the upper limit of what is possible with the equipment I have been provided, however, I believe that you will find their results more than satisfactory. Air transmission is currently possible via coughing, but the disease takes hold in a period much too fast for infection rates to be sustainable compared to the casualty rates, especially given the likely quarantine. Currently we are working on water transmission, and inducing an incubation period. Please send for me if you have any further questions._

 _-Amhe Rest_

Nax's eyes widened at the name. "Suns alive." he muttered, utterly horrified at the mere mention of Amhe Rest.

"What?" Kyra questioned.

"Amhe Rest." Nax said, as if Kyra would know who that was. "Bastard's still kicking, and he's right here under our noses on Coruscant." he continued, and Kyra felt the need to clarify.

"No, I mean _who_ is Amhe Rest?"

Nax paused, raising a finger as he kept vigilant over the warehouse. "Do you know anything about Nuvo Vindi?" he questioned, and Kyra crossed her arms, impatiently tapping her fingers in a wavelike motion against her arm, waiting for Nax to get to the point.

"Sort of," she admitted, still impatient. "I found a datapad with some old Holonet News articles loaded onto it in the hold of the ship. He re-created the Blue Shadow Virus during the Clone Wars, right?" she asked, and Nax nodded to confirm it.

"Right. Vindi is still Suns-knows-where in the galaxy, but Rest is a Givin virologist and former colleague of Vindi's. He and Vindi engineered that strain of brainrot that hit Onderon a while back." he explained, leaning over the railing. "I saw his bounty puck once. Thirty five thousand. If he's involved with the Path, then there's no way in hell that's going to be good for _anyone_. Let's just hope that Sidewinder can find out where he is before anything happens."

Speaking of, Sidewinder had been viewing the conversation between the two Pathers for some time, before deciding that there was little else of interest, and he continued with his primary objective. Moving ahead, he went down an incline and turned to the left, ending up at a vent in the wall. Through the cracks, he spotted a computer terminal with a port for his scomp link directly to his right. He quickly began to disassemble the fasteners on the vent, and gently led it down so that nobody would be alerted to his presence. As soon as that was done, Sidewinder darted to the console, plugged himself in, and began downloading everything he possibly could from their system.

Keeping his head on a swivel, Sidewinder kept frantically darting his looks between the door to the rest of the building and the terminal. He raised his scan node to perform a pulse, but immediately shied away, retracting the node. The download was almost done now, he just needed a few more seconds…

His audio receptors were picking up approaching footsteps, and if Sidewinder had a heart, it'd be jumping out of his chest now, and his darting became more frequent as the steps grew closer. Practically screaming at himself to get the download done faster, Sidewinder managed to get it done, and sped away to the vent as fast as his repulsors would carry him. The door opened behind him just as he entered the vent, and whoever it was must have seen him. "Demon in the base!" he shouted out. "Sound the alarm, it's going through the vents!"

Sidewinder had never flown as fast as he did in that instant. Slugs were penetrating the vents as he flew, coming close to hitting his chassis, the sounds of gunfire and slugs richocheting against metal overloading his audio receptors. Undeterred, Sidewinder pressed ahead, managing to find the roof vent. He immediately took his chance, and practically launched out, bolting towards where Nax and Kyra were positioned.

Multiple Pathers ran out of the building, weapons raised, taking potshots at Sidewinder as he flew to safety, causing Nax and Kyra to return fire. "We've been engaged!" Nax shouted into the comms as he hit a Pather in the chest. Kyra's shots were as inaccurate as they were ineffective, a fact she quickly realized, causing her to switch to just trying to keep as many of the Pathers suppressed as she could. Sidewinder finally managed to make it over, and hung off of Nax's back. "Sidewinder's here, let's go!" he shouted over the weapons fire, pulling Kyra away from the railing and moving back towards the stairwell.

Switching over to his DC, Nax opened the door, only to find three Pathers staring back at him, rifles at the ready. There was a half-second pause before the sight registered for anyone, and when it did, the Pathers shot first. Two shots went wide, while the third scraped his helmet. Nax felt the hit, so he returned in kind with a burst of return fire, before forcing the door shut and shooting the control panel, blocking their only way out.

It took a moment for it to process, especially under the amount of gunfire they were receiving. "…Well, sithspit." Nax said in a flat tone. "Now what?" he mumbled, looking for another way to get out.

Kyra shot off a few more bolts down to street level, before looking and seeing the destroyed panel. "Oh, for the love of…" she cursed under her breath. "You laserbrain! How are we gonna get down now?!"

Nax quickly scanned the environment, and spotted an overhead pipe that the two of them could grapple on to and use to scale a nearby building. "Kyra, you got a grappling hook?" Nax quickly asked as a slug hit the wall behind him, causing him to reflexively flinch. "Your sleeves. Pull them back."

Kyra did as she was told, and much to Nax's frustration, they found that her armor lacked many of the gadget's that Nax's had. "Alright, new plan." Nax improvised, opening comms. "Kelah, you there?"

Nevda's voice crackled through the commlink. _"I'm here, and we're all hearing gunfire. Are you three on your way back, or what?"_ Nevda questioned, sounding rather unconcerned.

"We've hit a snag." Nax revealed, looking over at the destroyed control panel. "We're trapped on the roof of a building directly across from the warehouse. There's no way for me to get down without leaving Kyra behind."

Nevda suddenly snapped to attention, her boots crashing against the floor of the cockpit as she presumably sat forward. _"What do you need me to do?"_

"Bring the ship around with the boarding ramp down, and have Knockout standing ready to grab us."

" _Grab you?!"_ Nevda half-shouted, shocked at what she thought he was going to try. _"You know, now I'm starting to believe Kel's story about the walker. See you in three minutes."_

"Got it." Nax replied, shutting the comms off. "We've got a new plan, Kyra." Nax said, glancing to the door right as the sparks of a fusion cutter began to show through the door. She looked over with a questioning look, readying her blaster towards the door. "Nevda's bringing the ship around, and we're going to grapple to it."

Kyra lurched forward. "We're going to _WHAT?!"_ she shouted in disbelief. "You're insane!"

"You got a better idea?" Nax asked, and Kyra's lack of a response told him all he needed to know. "Knockout's going to reel us in, fast enough that the cord shouldn't break." he elaborated, before glancing back to to the door, which had just about a quarter of the work done to force it open. "Kyra, I need your absolute trust that this will work."

Kyra's body language screamed that she was increasingly hesitant, even with the Path bearing down on them. "I-" she started, intending on protesting, before giving in. "Fine." she reluctantly said. "This is the most scatterbrained idea you've ever had, but we don't exactly have many options, anyways."

Nax nodded, before glancing to the door. "When she circles the ship around, I need you to hang on to me as tight as you possibly can." he ordered, and Kyra nodded. Nax shouldered the Aug2 and fired a round into a part of the door that had been cut through, earning a shout of pain from the Pather on the other end as the sparks stopped flowing. After waiting for several seconds, the sparks resumed, so Nax cycled the bolt and shot another round, achieving the same effect. This time, however, the sparks didn't resume, so Nax could only assume the Pathers were cutting their losses and pulling back.

Sidewinder let off a scan pulse, which revealed to him that not only were the Pathers not at the door anymore, but they had instead placed a detpack, which was currently ticking down. Sidewinder let out a shrill, alarmed 'dwooo!' to alert Nax, showing the outline of the detpack on his and Kyra's huds. "They've put a detpack on the door, get to cover!" Nax ordered, running behind another ventilation unit and crouching behind it, while Kyra vaulted an exposed air duct and took cover behind that.

They could hear the engines of the ship now, and Nax impatiently kept switching his focus between the door and the possible directions the ship would be coming from. Either he would have to run to Kyra, or she'd have to run to him. Switching weapons again, Nax prepped his DC to spray down the chokepoint, but the ship thundering down on them changed his mind. "Change of plans!" Nax shouted as he ran over to Kyra, ignoring the merest notion of cover, and re-holstering the DC on the way. "Ship's here, let's get the hell out!"

Kyra stood up and grabbed on to him, and he wrapped his right arm around her waist to give some form of support on his end. Aiming his left arm just ahead of the open boarding ramp, Nax raised the trajectory slightly to account for drop, and then he fired.

There was a half-second pause as the hook travelled through the air. When it wrapped around one of the beams for the lowering mechanism, though, was when they launched into the air, being dragged by the ship as it flew, with Kyra screaming from the sudden sensation of flying. There was an explosion behind them as the detpack blew up, and a much larger squad of Pathers ran out onto the roof, shooting at both the ship, and the dangling trio.

However, as stressful as that may have been, nothing could ever compare to the feeling of a quad laser cannon firing practically in your ear. The ship gradually grew closer as Knockout pulled them in, fighting against the ship's movements from the laser cannon blasting the rooftop. Just as they were about to get close enough that Knockout could grab Nax's arm and finish pulling them in, the cord began to tear. Sidewinder started to panic, and kicked his repulsors into full gear, contributing what little he could to getting these two to safety. Kelah ran down the boarding ramp and joined Knockout in trying to pull them to safety, but it was all for naught.

Just as Kelah reached out to grab them, the wire snapped, sending Kyra, Sidewinder, and Nax plummeting to the pavement. Before Kelah had even reacted to that, though, Knockout reached forward and grabbed Nax's arm with an impossible amount of speed, carefully pulling them up and onto the boarding ramp. "Directive one:" Knockout boomed proudly. "Protect the masters."

Slowly, Nax and Kyra let go of each other, still in shock at their dance with death. After staring wide-eyed at the destruction on the rooftop, Kyra snapped out of it, and smacked Nax on the head comedically. "I _told_ you that your plan was insane!" she shouted, earning a snicker from Kelah as Sidewinder detached from Nax and went over to perch on her shoulder.

Nax chuckled briefly. "Yeah, but it worked out, didn't it?" he responded. Kyra was about to chew him out again, but a rocket just narrowly whiffing the hull changed her mind, and the group ran inside, shutting the boarding ramp behind them.

* * *

The Arch-Canon walked out onto the roof of the building across from the storehouse, taking in the destruction that had now befallen his cell. "Unfortunate." he simply remarked, stepping over the burning body of a dead Pather, before glancing up at the escaping freighter. "Very, very unfortunate."

Reika came out behind him. "This cell has been compromised, Arch-Canon. The demon downloaded our entire database before fleeing." she said, before cracking her knuckles in anticipation. "Do you have any further orders?"

The fading sounds of the freighter's sublight engines was gradually replaced by the telltale hum of Underworld Police LAATs arriving on the scene. Casually, he pulled out a detonator and triggered it, causing the storehouse to detonate in a fiery explosion. "I believe it's time that we left, Reika."

"As you command, Arch-Canon."

* * *

 **That's this chapter.**

 **I swear to fucking god Mau-Sanir has absolutely nothing to do with the Coronavirus, I had the idea planned several weeks before Corona became publicly known.**

 **I actually threw together a sort of diagram of what the Blind Compdog looks like, but I can't post it because Fanfiction's anti-spam/link pasting is a fuck. If you'd like to see it, shoot me a private message.**

 **Originally, I was going to have Nax, Kyra, and Sidewinder escape the building by clearing out the place floor by floor, but then I realized that would be way too fucking slow, so I went for the rule of cool shit and had them grapple onto the ship, maybe or maybe not aping the final episode of The Mandalorian's first season.**

 **There's also one last thing I'd like to mention; I'm partially rewriting the Tatooine chapters to fit in line with what I have now, particularly chapter 1, which I'm super not happy with. My main problem with chapter 1 is that it's got no real sense of pacing – you meet Nax and Kyra immediately and know jack shit about either of them until like halfway through. The immediate changes I'm making are including the deaths of Trax and Cobro, Kyra's escape, and a rewrite of Nax's reaction to Kyra being sympathetic towards him. That "hurhur I don't care that my family's dead" shit directly conflicts with how Nax stands now in regard to dealing with that particular trauma. That's not how _any_ person would react to someone trying to sympathize with them.**

 **Anyways, 'till next time, everyone!**

 **-Tweak**


	17. Right Man, Wrong Time

**Doom Eternal's plot summarized:  
"NOOOO! You can't just kill the Hell Priests and stop our invasion of Earth! NOOOOOOOO!"**

" **haha chainsaw go VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"**

 **Good game.**

 **Read and review.**

* * *

Nax, Kyra, and Lexi quietly stood by as Sidewinder plugged himself in to the ship's systems, transferring everything he had downloaded from the Pather computers. Nevda and Kelah were both watching with great intent, amazed at their find. "Look at all of this intel!" Nevda exclaimed, her expression continuing to widen with glee as the files scrolled by on the screen. "Cell locations, patrols, raids, recordings of destroyed tech - it's like if Kuat left all of their ship design blueprints on a damned mouse droid!" she continued.

Kelah, however, was far more reserved in her reaction, having her arms crossed, but taking everything in just as fast as Nevda was. A file rolled across the screen, standing out from the others with its red text. "Stop." Kelah ordered, and the dataflow ceased as she approached the monitor. The file was marked 'Project Mau-Sanir', and seemed to be a top-priority file, with access codes likely assigned to the absolute top of whatever hierarchy the Path had, including the Arch-Canon. "Transfer that file to my neural lace, Sidewinder." she requested, and Sidewinder complied, letting off a shrill 'dwaaa' in response.

"You got something in mind, Kel?" Nevda mused while Sidewinder resumed the upload.

Kelah pursed her lips, before glancing over at Nevda. "Something's telling me that shutting down Mau-Sanir should be our main objective right now." she replied, turning an unsure gaze outside the cockpit. "Moreso than destroying the Path itself."

"Why's that?" Nevda asked.

Nax stepped in now. "Mau-Sanir is apparently being headed by Amhe Rest, a Givin virologist with ties to Nuvo Vindi." he said, causing Nevda to step back in surprise.

"You mean that Separatist scientist that brought back Blue Shadow?" Nevda questioned. Nax and Kelah nodded.

"You and I are both old enough to remember the scare that caused, Nevda." Kelah said as Sidewinder detached himself from the console, having finished his upload. "Vindi and Rest are possibly still working together – they let a new strain of brainrot out onto Onderon a year or so ago, so if Rest is working for the Path, I would be willing to bet that Vindi isn't too far behind."

Lexi finally piped up as a few LAATs converted for firefighting shot over the ship, alongside a medical transport. "…So, any ideas for how we're going to take down this whole Pather project?"

Kelah sighed as she stepped back from the console. "First things first, I'll need to slice this file wide open. With any luck, they'll have everything about Mau-Sanir in there, or at the very least, wherever they're working on it." she answered, pulling her hood back up.

"Question," Kyra said, and everyone looked over at her. "What do we do if there's nothing on the file?"

Kelah paused to think of a response, before shrugging in a nonchalant manner. "If that's the case, then I'd say we're out of luck." she responded, although her expression showed she was still wracking her thoughts for possibly solutions. "I mean, we did just steal what I can only assume is the _entire_ Pather database, so if there's nothing about Mau-Sanir there, then our only other option would be torturing it out of someone on the command hierarchy, like the Arch-Canon, or maybe that woman Nax saw enter." Kelah continued, gesturing over to Nax. "But if that's what we're left with, then I'd say you'd have better luck doing blind jumps in the Unknown Regions trying to find the Katana fleet and _not_ dying. Coruscant is just about the worst possible place to find a small handful of people with no way of tracking them."

The group collectively took this in, at least, until Nevda coughed. "…I'm pretty sure we should all be reporting to our superiors, so if you'd be so kind as to leave us be…?" she said, quietly gesturing to the cockpit door.

Nax, Kyra, and Lexi nodded, leaving to go report to Vopa. Once they were out, Nevda shut and sealed the cockpit door while Kelah sat down in the communications console chair, sliding the headset under her hood. "Set up a line to the Grand Ascendant, Sidewinder." Kelah requested, and the droid let out a questioning 'dwee-dwoo-dwaa?' in regard to comm security. "Then sandbox the call and purge it when we're done if you're so damned sure the ship is bugged."

The droid let out an affirmative chirp as he plugged into the console, and the call opened to the Grand Ascendant. _"Voto – what news do you bring me?"_ he asked, his tone as calm and collected as ever.

"Much." Kelah replied, echoing the same kind of calm that the Ascendant was. "To begin, I've uncovered a rather decently sized cache of information that points towards the Anzat killer being Caliban Bullen."

The calm in the Ascendant's voice slowly faded away. _"Bullen?"_ he said, his surprise ringing through his vocoder. _"Fascinating – that would explain the large gaps between Bullen's pieces."_ the Ascendant noted, sounding rather excited at the prospect of uncovering the identity of Bullen, even if it was only at a superficial level. _"What else have you found?"_

Kelah cleared her throat and moved her bangs out of the way. "We found Bullen's apartment, and while he wasn't there, we did take every single datapad we could find. Most were unfinished novels, but we did find the location of a Pather cell." she exposited, avoiding going into any sort of real detail unless it was requested of her. "From there, we downloaded what I can only assume is the entire Pather database, and also discovered something called Mau-Sanir, a Pather research project headed by the Givin virologist, Amhe Rest, associate to Nuvo Vindi. Our current objective has changed from eliminating the Pather hierarchy to stopping Rest before anything happens."

The Ascendant audibly swallowed, and let out a low hum in binary. _"…I see."_ he simply stated as the sounds of metal plates shifting echoed through the comms. _"When, exactly, do you intend on sending these files to us, Voto?"_

"As soon as Rest has been handled, Grand Ascendant. I want to minimize leaks as much as possible." Kelah curtly replied, glancing over to Nevda, who had an effectively neutral look on her face, with only the vaguest hint of a small cropping up. "I'd also like to note that Nax, the Coru-Hiver mark, has been rather helpful in my investigation. He…" Kelah hesitated for a moment. "…he and his group were doing their own investigation on the Path, it seems, and he has saved my life on several occasions. I have complete confidence and trust in his abilities and his loyalties, Grand Ascendant."

The Grand Ascendant made several noises of consideration through the comms. _"…Noted. Perhaps we can foster some sort of alliance with the Hivers after all is said and done."_ he proposed, before his vocoder let out an electronic sigh. _"I appreciate the work you're putting into this assignment, Voto. These circumstances are most certainly dire – and given your skillset, you are the one I trust most to handle it."_

Kelah remained quiet for a moment. "…Thank you, Grand Ascendant. You humble me." she said in a much quieter tone of voice, and the comms cut themselves out. A quick technical check from Sidewinder's end confirmed that the cut came from the Ascendant's end.

* * *

Nax walked through the corridors of the ship in utter silence, simply taking the time to consider the vessel as a whole. Finding a 1300 that was completely stock save for the hyperdrive, and to get it so cheap and have it be in such great condition – Nax had already counted his blessings. The old starfighter he had planned to get originally seemed like such a poor choice compared to the ship he owned now.

Yet, Nax couldn't help but feel that something was off about the ship. Unmodified 1300s were veering on the edge of extinction, a trait they shared with the CloakShape. The 'drive being brought down to class one was proof enough that someone had at least tinkered with the ship, which helped fuel Nax's suspicions that there was more to the ship than meets the eye. Perhaps Avadi had missed a spot check?

Nax's suspicions eventually proved themselves correct – near the cockpit corridor, one of the seemingly infinite wall panels appeared to be loose. Kneeling over and examining it, Nax wiggled it, prying it loose, revealing a small smuggler's compartment. Inside were a scant few power packs that seemed to belong to an E-11, but the important thing was that there, indeed, were modifications beyond just the hyperdrive.

Re-inserting the panel into its socket, Nax stood back up and continued his walk. While the contents of that compartment were effectively useless to him and the others, there could be more valuable goodies hidden around the ship, but he would have to find them later, if he didn't stumble across them, that was.

Nax happened upon Zeethree, who immediately turned his attention to him. "Ah, Master Strag," the droid greeted in his usual chipper tone. "Master Kyra and Master Sapphyra are in the crew lounge, if you were looking for them. Something seems to be bothering the both of them."

Nodding his head once as he walked, Nax proceeded into the lounge to find Lexi and Kyra, both sitting at the deactivated holotable. Kyra was wearing the undersuit of her armor, while the detached pieces were strewn about, some having been repainted a brighter shade of gray, almost appearing like chromium, while others were the original muted gray. However, the helmet had some rather noteworthy changes.

The first thing Nax had noticed was that Kyra had added two chalk-white tally marks on the left cheek of the helmet, likely to represent claimed bounties. Then, there was a heavily stylized skull crossed out in red that bore significant resemblance to Lostur – _that_ had been placed just in front of the right-side attachment hardpoint. The skull looked almost like shrunken down street art, similar to the kind they usually came across in alleyways and other areas off of the main streets of Coruscant's underworld. Finally, on the forehead of the helmet, Kyra had added a white blade flanked by two claw-like weapons, their weapon tips all pointing to an apex.

Aside from what Kyra had done to the helmet, Lexi had Thel's blaster out. A couple of the internals had been taken out and rendered inert for the time being, and Lexi had parts from what seemed to be a CR-2. Thinking about it briefly, Nax mused that converting that thing for automatic fire might not be a terrible idea.

Finally done musing on what the two were doing, Nax spoke up. "Hey," he greeted, and the two of them turned their attention to him. "You two doing alright?"

Lexi gave a somewhat pained smile to try and assuage Nax's thoughts. "…We're just trying to keep busy." she answered.

"Still thinking about Markan?"

Lexi paused her work for a moment, before setting the blaster down. "…Yeah." she responded in a deadpan tone, staring blankly ahead. "I mean, how can I not?" she continued, turning that blank stare directly to Nax. "I know we've talked about this over and over, Nax, but I just can't get it off my damn mind."

Kyra, who had been completely silent until now, suddenly spoke. "…Having your entire perception of someone you've been raised by get shattered in an instant tends to do that to people, Lexi." she said in a dry voice.

"I know that, but I've only ever seen it from an outside view." Lexi pointed out, leaning back in her seat. "It's never registered for me just how _awful_ this feels to experience. I hate it, and there's nothing I can do about it!" she ranted, banging her head against the seat to drive the point home.

"…Maybe you can." Nax said, and Lexi's blank look went away, replaced by one of cautious curiosity. "You only saw Markan for a few minutes at best before he shot himself in the foot. It might be better if we took you to him and let you vent all this out to him. If anything, you'll at least get it out of your system."

Lexi bobbed her head lightly, as if she were literally rolling the idea around in her head. She remained silent for several seconds, before giving Nax an unsure glance. "…You know what? As much as I think this is a terrible idea, something's telling me that I should really let him have it. Bastard deserves it, at the very least." she said, albeit reluctantly. Lexi then went back to her work on Thel's blaster.

Nax crossed his arms as he leaned on the archway. "We'll make time for that, but for now," he trailed, practically hovering over the table. "What, exactly, are you two doing?"

Kyra perked up. "Oh! I'm repainting my armor to look brighter. I like the general color scheme, but it's a bit… I don't know, dull?" she answered, gleaming up at Nax, her eyes shining with an unnatural brightness, and her expression filled with glee. "So I've decided to make it my own. Lexi even gave me the idea of adding little victory marks to the helmet." she continued, pulling Lexi into a cheeky hug with her free arm, much to the Zeltron's surprise.

"I didn't draw them for her, though." Lexi added, and Kyra released her, returning her focus to Nax.

"Nope, it's all me!" Kyra said proudly "One thing I've noticed is that I can draw like it's just second nature. I've tried drawing a bunch of different styles – I've got the slate around here somewhere, but for whatever reason, I keep defaulting to this kind of graffiti look." Kyra noted, tapping on the skull of Lostur.

Nax finally had the good sense to sit down across from the girls. "Interesting." he responded, throwing his right leg up over his left and leaning forward onto the table. "Sounds like before you were captured, you were some kind of artist, or at the very least, you knew how to draw."

Kyra shrugged, unsure of what to make of Nax's observation. "I don't know about being an artist, but it _is_ nice being able to just do this stuff from what feels like should be memory."

Nax then glanced over to Lexi working on Thel's blaster. "Now, what are _you_ doing?" he questioned, raising an eyebrow. "And furthermore, how'd you even get hold of that? I'd thought it was lost when Lostur took our gear."

Lexi sat the firing assembly for the CR-2 down and looked to Nax. "To answer your first question, I'm modding Thel's blaster to be automatic. To the second, they'd thrown it in the armory. I took it during the fighting and put it in one of the boxes when we were going to Mos Espa. Forgot about it until just now." she answered. With that, she picked the firing assembly back up and examined it, trying to figure out how to fit it into the pistol.

Now that he had a better, refreshed look at the blaster's internals, alongside what Lexi was planning to do with it, he knew this actually probably was a poor idea. Well, poorer of an idea than cramming a DL-44's capacitor into a Clone Wars-era blaster produced in limited numbers, anyways. "That'll probably blow up the second you try and fire it full auto, Lexi. Not to mention, you can't even rig the firing assembly in." Nax advised, causing Lexi to stop all work and set the two disassembled weapons down.

She rested her head on her palm, giving Nax a half-annoyed look. "Then what, might I ask, do you suggest I do to it?" she asked in a kind of teasing tone.

"Rig a Blurrg's assembly in instead." Nax responded, and Lexi stopped moving, all expression and emotion drained from her face in an instant. "It'll be safer and easier to rig either a two or five shot Blurrg's assembly in instead of a whole CR-2 assembly." he continued, idly tapping his fingers against the table. "Plus, it won't instantly drain the ammo, and it'll be more controllable."

Lexi stayed still for a few seconds, before turning to normal, sitting back in the seat. "Do we _have_ a Blurrg?" she asked, before pulling the parts for the CR-2 together and reassembling it in what must have been record time.

"I'll have to check the parts bin in the hold." he answered. Just then, Arfive and Katy came in. While Arfive strolled up to Lexi and delivered her datapad to her, and was promptly rewarded with a few pats on the head.

Katy, however, noted the respraying tools on the table, and looked up to Kyra with an expectant stare, letting out a series of high pitched chirps that sounded more like annoyed threats than anything else. "I'll paint you when I'm done with my gear, alright?" Kyra said, exasperated at Katy's nagging. Nax and Lexi simply chuckled at Kyra's frustration, earning Lexi a joking slap and Nax an empty can thrown in his general direction, which bounced harmlessly off of his chestplate and onto the floor.

Now that he thought about it, now was probably a good time to do a full gear check on his armor. Sure, he had the basics down, like the grappling hook, but it never hurt to know just what exactly had been done to the suit. Right as Nax pulled back his sleeve, Lexi's datapad began to blast whatever music she had on it, starting with Sugaan Essena.

Finally bothering to take a close, in-depth look at his gear, Nax realized that what he had initially believed to be part of the grappling hook system was, in fact, a concussion rocket, linked to an autoloader, with presumably a second rocket collapsed into the wristplate. He was tempted to figure out how to fire it, but shooting it in the ship wasn't exactly a great idea. Turning the wristplate over, Nax noticed a hidden knife, concealed in a small slot at the end of the plate. Briefly fiddling with the suit's controls to unsheathe it, Nax saw that it long enough to be able to use it as an escape tool for rope bindings and the like, but too short to make a valid replacement for the knife he currently had on him.

Shifting his attention over to the other wristplate, Nax found a matching knife sheath, alongside an identical control scheme. Maybe dad'd been tied up one too many times. Continuing to mess with the control panel, Nax revealed two more hidden parts on the right wristplate, one was a flame projector that dripped some kind of black, viscous liquid onto the floor, apparently having accidentally been fired, only to be totally empty. On the side of the barrel were the words _CZERKA ARMS MANUFACTURE_ , written in bold script. The other thing that Nax had inadvertently revealed was a shock caster, with two buttons on the side of the actual caste, one marked with shock, and the other, stun.

Checking the rest of his armor and finding nothing else of note, as well as seeing as he almost set the entire lounge on fire, Nax decided that he had enough. Getting up, Nax headed for the hold. Going in and moving some boxes aside to get at his parts bin, he picked up on Kelah's lighter-than-normal footsteps, something he had unconsciously trained himself to do after having been around her for only a few days, not to mention him basically hosting her on his ship. "Hey, Kel." Nax casually greeted, as he began to rummage through the bin.

"Hello, Nax," Kelah greeted back, her tone rather serious. "I've come to ask you about something that's rather… important to me." she hesitantly said, but managing to keep her thoughts in order. "I need you to be absolutely honest with me."

"Sure. Shoot." Nax said as he pulled out the pistol grip for an old slug pistol Thel had tossed his way.

Kelah hesitated again, but steeled herself regardless. "…How much do you know about Vark Rurmiid?" she questioned.

Subconsciously, Nax had known this question would be coming at some point. Maybe not specifically about Vark, but it would have been regarding Nax's involvement with the Imperials in general. "…I know he had a bounty on his head for around ten thousand." Nax simply answered, avoiding the truth that he had a gut feeling Kelah already knew.

"…Interesting." Kelah replied, before moving to Nax while he sifted through the bin, getting so close to his ear that he could practically hear her breathing down his neck. "Because I have a file from the Mos Eisley Imperial garrison that specifically names _you_ as the bounty hunter that brought Vark in. One of the camp's spies brought this information to us, and I made a local copy. I've only had the sense to look at it now." she continued. "When we springed Vark, we just so happened to find out that he had a tracking beacon on him, which lead the Empire straight to the compound to wipe us out. So, what do you have to say to this?" Kelah questioned, and Nax could hear her arm blades slowly revealing themselves, hopefully just to expedite a response.

Nax stopped his rummaging through the bin and froze up like he'd just been frozen in carbonite. "…Are you going to kill me? To get some kind of revenge for everyone at the base?" he asked, his voice almost completely stone cold and emotionless compared to just moments ago. "I was hired to do a job, and I did it. That's what mercenaries do – we don't attach ourselves to causes or sides, just whoever's paying us."

Kelah kept quiet, taking Nax's words into consideration, but she was still hovering behind him. "…Had I found this out before I rejoined the Ascendancy, Nax, I'd have slaughtered you on the spot." she said with a cold ruthlessness that Nax hadn't seen before. Her blades began to slowly sheathe. "…However, under the Ascendancy, I've learned to… control myself, for lack of a better word."

Nax remained frozen in place "…Do you hate me?"

Kelah's response sounded surprised. "Hate you?" she said with a slightly incredulous tone of voice. "I don't hate you, Nax. Not once, both here and on Tatooine, have I ever suspected you would betray anyone, and I still don't." Kelah answered, which resulted in Nax being quietly surprised. "The Ascendancy subscribes to the belief of predestination. To put it simply, certain roles in the galaxy will always be filled by others, whether it's a poor moisture farmer on some backwater world, power hungry Hutts and Moffs, or guns for hire. You were simply fulfilling your role in the galaxy, and I can't bring myself to hate you over something you had little control over." she continued, finally stepping back and letting Nax have some breathing room. "However, I know your true loyalty isn't to your employer and their credits, but to your friends. I've seen the way you walk around with Kyra and Lexi, Nax. How you three talk together like you've been friends since childhood. They trust you with their lives implicitly. Nobody would single-handedly take down a chicken walker for people he barely knew if he wasn't loyal to the only friend of his in danger, or would help others in killing some monstrous alien shapeshifter to save a friend's life."

Kelah crossed her arms and breathed out. "So, to answer your question, no, I don't hate you, and I won't kill you. You were not the ultimate cause for why the compound and cell were destroyed. Had it not been you, it would have been someone else. We just took the bait." she continued.

Nax stood up and slowly turned to face Kelah. To an outsider, the very idea that someone as tall as Nax, with all of his weaponry and armor, could be threatened by someone so short was laughable, yet the two of them treated each other as equals here. "Your die-hard loyalty to those you trust is an admirable trait, Nax, but there are those that would seek to manipulate that trust for their own benefit. Mind yourself." Kelah finished, before reaching into her jacket and producing a lightly damaged Blurrg, pushing it into Nax's palms. "I'll be in the cockpit if you need me."

With that, Kelah took her leave, leaving Nax alone in the hold, clutching the Blurrg. He always had a sneaking suspicion that she knew, but he honestly didn't expect her to let him live. Regaining his faculties, he held the Blurrg by the barrel and returned to the lounge, sitting himself next to Lexi. She took one glance at the blaster, and was halfway done disassembling it by the time Nax had realized it wasn't in his hands anymore.

Once the Blurrg had been laid bare, Lexi pulled the dust cover off of Thel's blaster, revealing the complex work that had been done to it. The two of them scanned the weapon for the heter valve, and eventually found a likely suspect, rigged to the '44's capacitor. Lexi carefully detached the link between the valve and the capacitor, and then removed the valve itself, setting it aside. Grabbing the firing assembly for the Blurrg, she removed the heter valve and then inserted it onto where the presumably original one was. After failing to initially re-attach it, with the connector coming loose, Lexi ran the connector into the frame of the blaster, looped it around a part of the frame once, and then reconnected it. This time, it actually stayed in place.

Having waited long enough for the blaster to _not_ explode as a result of her admittedly haphazard modification, she removed the internal power pack and clicked the blaster on. Pointing it at a wall opposite the table and away from everyone, she pulled the trigger. There was no explosion or lost hands, just two very satisfying clicks coming from an empty weapon. Satisfied with her handiwork, she clicked the blaster back off and reattached the power pack, before sliding the dust cover back on and clicking it into place. Turning the blaster back on for a second and final time, the whole thing seemed to work as intended. Pleased with herself, Lexi turned it off, before running her hand alongside the barrel, no doubt thinking of more ways to modify the weapon.

However, for the time being, at least, Lexi slid the blaster into Thel's holster, resting rather comfortably against her stomach. Grabbing a case from underneath the table, she packed the remaining parts on the table into it, before standing up and sliding over Nax to get out of the seat.

* * *

Carefully, Nax touched the ship down just outside the facility Markan was being held in, with minimal assistance from Arfive and Nevda, the latter of whom gave him a joking slap on the back. "There you go, you're learning!" she teased, before unplugging her scomp link and kicking back in the copilot's seat.

Nax shot her an annoyed, but playful look. "Flying a full sized freighter isn't exactly like flying a T-16, Nevda." he replied, causing her to throw her head back in laughter.

"My ass it isn't!" Nevda shot back. "I bet you I could make this ship turn on a dime better than an Actis!" she continued. Nax turned the chair around, all the while giving her a confused look. Arfive took note of this, and gurgled out a brief explanation. "Yeah, they're old interceptors. Nice ships, but they're death traps if you don't know what the hell you're doing." she added, pausing for a second, and the blue fragments in her eyes suddenly spread out in sudden realization of something as she shot forward in her seat. "I just remembered – I probably _could_ make this thing turn on a dime. There was some guy I met once at the Wheel – Grishak, I think his name was. He modded out his Y-8 so much that it could out-turn any snubfighter in the sector."

Nax gave her a surprised look. "A Y-8? You mean one of those big mining ships?" he said in disbelief.

Nevda nodded. "Yeah, and just to prove it, he ran the damned thing through every opening on the Wheel's hull. Security couldn't keep up with the thing, but they caught him eventually. The fine was _huge_ , but I think everyone dumping their credsticks on Grishak was enough for him to make a nice profit, especially for almost blowing the damn place up."

Moving over to Arfive, Nax rested his arm on the droid's head, much to his displeasure. "You know, Nevda, that sounds like a load of bantha fodder." he opined, causing Arfive to suddenly spring to life, burbling something about Nax being wrong. "Prove it." Nax responded, and Arfive froze up for several seconds, his internals clicking and whirring, before his holoprojector turned on, showing a video from a ship near the Wheel of a Y-8 buzzing the hull, with several V-Wings chasing after it, and more than a few of them overshooting their turns.

A small smirk of smug satisfaction began to show itself on Nevda's face. "Told you." Nevda said, before turning her attention to Arfive. "Where'd you get that video, anyways? There were only a few ships near the Wheel when this happened." she asked, and Arfive gurgled out the honest truth that he was on the _Cranky Bantha_. Nevda gave him a surprised look in response. "Wait, you were on _the_ _Bantha_?" she questioned again, and Arfive repeated his answer, confirming what she had just asked. "Wow, then I guess you're not as much of a junk droid as I thought, huh?" she joked.

That set Arfive off, and he produced his stun prod, sending electric shocks at the copilot seat. "Hey, hey!" Nax shouted, intervening and turning the droid away as he threw a temper tantrum. "Don't use your shock prod in the cockpit!" he chastised, trying to wrangle the angry droid, much to Nevda's amusement.

"Not my fault your line was trash!" Nevda continued to prod, clearly enjoying the fight between Nax and Arfive, as Arfive's resistance to Nax was only intensifying.

Forcibly locking Arfive in place with arms, Nax glanced at Nevda over his shoulder. "You keep poking at him, Nevda, and I swear to the Suns I'll jam my knee so far up your ass it'll come out of your mouth." he threatened in an almost deadpan, but definitely angry tone.

Smiling and shaking her head, Nevda let it go. "Fine, fine, I'll let him go." she relented, eyeing the droid with a satisfied smirk. "You two'd better get going, now, though. I don't expect Lexi to keep going with this for long."

Releasing Arfive, Nax stood straight up. "Right. See you in a bit." he responded, motioning for Arfive to follow him to the boarding ramp, where they met with Kyra and Lexi, who were both dressed in their regular gear, although Kyra had simply opted for the chestplate instead of the full suit like Nax.

As Nax moved to drop the boarding ramp, Kyra reached out and grabbed Lexi's shoulder. "Hey, Lex?" she asked, sounding concerned for her friend. "Do you still want to go through with this?"

That caused Nax to hesitate as he waited on her answer. "…Honestly? No." Lexi replied in a flat tone, before sucking air in through her teeth. "…But I _do_ need to make a point to my dad, and I can't get this off my chest otherwise." she continued, before shifting her look at Nax, who was halfway between the corridor and the ramp room. "Drop the ramp."

Nax did as she asked, hitting the button, and the boarding ramp fell forwards, hitting the duracrete ground with a heavy thud. "Whoops." Nax remarked casually. "Looks like the ramp elevator needs tightening."

The group headed down the ramp, and right as they were physically off the ship, a man came running out from the building Markan was in. "Hey!" he shouted out. "Which one of you is Strag?" the man asked, and Nax raised his hand, before pointing at himself. "Vopa called ahead and told us he had a gift for you – just arrived yesterday. Carbonite freezing bricks, three of 'em. Said you might need them for future jobs."

Nax smiled and stepped aside, gesturing to the boarding ramp. "Load them up on a sled and set them in the hold." he ordered, and the man nodded, turning to head back into the building. "Hey!" Nax shouted out, and the man turned, giving him a half-cocked look. "Markan's doing fine, right?"

"Yeah!" the man shouted back. "Our CMO dipped him in a bacta/kolto mix and fed him a line of nutrient paste for a day or so while he was in the tank. He's still pretty lean, but he's not a skeleton anymore." the man finally finished, before heading inside.

A kind of quiet trepidation fell across the group as they headed towards the building, which looked to have been some sort of hab complex before being converted to a back-alley clinic operated by the Hivers. Nax noticed Lexi's expression as she inched a bit closer to him. "Having second thoughts?" he questioned.

"…Maybe." Lexi replied, sticking her hands in her coat's pockets. "I'd like to just pack up in the ship and go back to the apartment, honest, but I'm never going to get this off my mind if I back out now." she continued, giving a blank stare forward. "I need closure."

"You want to vent to him alone, or do you want us with you?" Kyra asked, tilting her head forward and turning it to Lexi.

Lexi deliberated over her answer. "I…" Lexi stumbled, both verbally and physically, managing to catch herself before she hit the floor. "…I think I'd prefer if you two were with me." she continued, unabated by her near fall. "You don't have to say anything, I'd just rather have you two close by."

"Sure thing, Lex." Nax responded.

The group finally headed inside, being greeted with a rather unorthodox look for a medical facility. There was tacky wallpaper that seemed to be peeling off the walls, and a rug that looked like it had come from an exotic animal. The lighting was also rather dim, but pulsed softly with a pinkish tone. You would easily be forgiven for thinking this was some sort of brothel, rather than a hospital. Granted, it was run by a gang of smugglers, but the point remained. When they approached the reception desk, the Twi'lek woman hopped off her communicator for what was probably the first time that day. "You Strag?" she asked, and when Nax nodded, she pointed to the hall on her right with . "Markan's in the third room on the right. He's awake, last I checked."

Lexi responded with a simple nod, and took the lead of the group, heading down the hall and going straight for the room Markan was in. She reached for the door handle, visibly hesitating as Nax and the others followed behind her. She took several deep breaths, regained her composure, and then pushed the handle down, walking inside, the rest of the group in tow.

There was actually a Trandoshan medic they bumped into who was just leaving Markan's room. He took one whiff of Lexi. "Your kin isss doing fine." he hissed out, before leaving them alone and heading to a room further up the hall to tend to another patient. Finally left to themselves, the group turned in and looked at the bedridden Markan, who was staring intently at them. Nax, Kyra, and Arfive refused to speak, leaving Lexi to say whatever she felt was necessary.

Markan and Lexi both stared at each other, the two of them waiting for the other to say the first word. Markan took his chance, and spoke first. "…I'm sure you have questions, Lexi." he said softly, trying to make himself appear worthy of his daughter's mercy.

Lexi scowled. "That's one hell of a way to put it." she said with an angry sneer as she walked to Markan's bedside. "But sure, let's start with that. Do you have any, and I mean _any_ idea what you put me through by leaving?" she continued, and Markan opened his mouth to speak, but Lexi cut him off. "First off, right when you left, I almost got myself sold into slavery, until Eath and his old bodyguard found me about to walk onto their freighter, thank the stars for that. Then, to make ends meet for myself, I started stealing and slicing – you know, typical things well-adjusted preteens will do for themselves." she went on, venom pouring from her voice.

Markan adopted a look of discomfort with what his daughter was saying, but he otherwise remained silent. "When I turned fifteen, I moved to Taris, where I almost got turned into a Rakghoul on _several_ occasions and had to fight to get by between Imperial aid packages." Lexi continued, angrily counting her hardships out on her fingers for emphasis. "I was seventeen, I hopped on a shuttle to Nar Shaddaa, where I couldn't walk a city block without having to deck some sleazeball producer who asked me to star in their garbage porn holos. _There_ , I learned how to become a weaponsmith, and just over half a year ago, I was taken to a weapons expo by my trainer, where the station was attacked, my handler and best friend were both killed, and _I_ was captured and enslaved for the next _six months_ of my life. I had to endure torture and anguish far worse than whatever the Empire puts prisoners through, on top of everything else, all because _you_ racked up one too many bar tabs because mom died!" Lexi finished finally losing her temper and shouting at Markan.

His face had changed from one of discomfort to one of disbelief. "…Tortured?" he parroted, not believing his own words.

"Yes, _tortured_ , and I have the scars to prove it." Lexi angrily stated, before reaching for her right sleeve and yanking it up to her shoulder, revealing multiple faded whip lashes, knife scars, and bruises, plus more than a few claw marks. " _This_ is what your little alcohol binge cost me." she chided with hatred and grief in her voice, before she looked over to Nax and Kyra. "…To be honest, I wouldn't even be alive to tell you this if it weren't for these two." Lexi went on, changing her tone to sound a bit more grateful, before switching back to her hateful one. "So, dad, tell me, can you _possibly_ think of a way to justify what your bar spree cost me? Having my own future taken from me in an instant?"

Markan didn't offer an immediate response. His expression told all that needed to be said, though, as now he was nothing short of mortified. "…Lexi…" he said weakly, as tears began to show their marks on his face, before he sniffled and wiped his eyes. "…Oh, Star Angel…" he wept.

Lexi sneered at him again. "You don't _deserve_ to call me that, after everything you've done." she snapped angrily.

"I-" Markan started before catching himself. "Lexi, I had no idea-"

"Of course you didn't!" Lexi interjected. "You were only thinking about _yourself_ , not about me, or anyone else around you. When mom died, you saw a burning coaxium chamber and went "Hmm, how can this benefit me?", and proceeded to throw rod after rod of coaxium and impalium into the chamber to make it worse!" she shouted again, with everyone in the room easily understanding her metaphor. "It's like you've lost your damned mind!" Lexi ranted, throwing her arm in Markan's general direction, before straightening herself out. "…Or maybe you've always been this way, and mom was just keeping you in check." she mumbled, half under her breath.

Markan took on a look of offense, and now had finally been given a chance to speak under Lexi's verbal onslaught. "…Lexi…" he said calmly. "I never intended to abandon you-"

Lexi rolled her eyes in response. "Yet you did, anyways. Here I am, a broken mess of a woman with a dozen different illegal skills and other problems, because _YOU_ walked out on me when I needed you the most!" Lexi raved in anger, stopping just short of punching a hole in the wall.

Trying to ease her rage, Nax placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a calm, stern look. Lexi glanced over her shoulder, took note of this, and then took a few deep breaths to calm herself. "I've had ten years to think about what I'd say to you, dad. I always wanted this to go smoothly so that we'd be a family again, but the more you try and defend leaving me over you drinking too much booze, the more I hate you, so I'm going to say my piece, and then hopefully never have to think about you again." she said in a much calmer voice, but her eyes were now filled with a silent, seething hatred for Markan. "You are one of the worst people I have ever met, and you're an even worse father. I hate you for who you are, and for what you've done to me, and I want nothing more than to have you out of my life forever. Don't ever talk to me or try to find me again." she remarked with acidic intensity, finally letting out a sigh she had been holding in and heading for the door. She opened it, and gave one look at Markan. "Go to hell." she finally finished, walking out and presumably heading back towards the ship.

Kyra awkwardly held her finger up. "I'll… go with her." she hesitantly said, before leaving the room and following Lexi to wherever she was going.

"I'll catch up with you two in a minute." Nax said with a half glance as Kyra was already halfway through the door. When she shut it, Nax turned his attention to Markan, but said nothing.

Markan was, well, stunned, to say the least. "I… thought she and I were going to talk…?" he said in disbelief, staring through Nax, like he wasn't even there.

Huffing, Nax crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "There was never going to be a talk, Markan." he said plainly. "Lexi hates you too much for that. She needed to vent ten years' worth of anger at you." he continued, shifting his gaze to the hazy window by Markan.

Markan sunk into his bed, staring out that same window, a broken look adorning his face. Rain quietly began to patter against the glass. "…I know that, but…" he mumbled, tuning himself out from the outside world. "…I don't know what to do, honestly."

Nax detached himself from the wall. "Here's a thought, Markan;" he responded, arms still crossed. "When my mom died, my dad didn't abandon me and my brother on Tatooine like you left Lexi here. He took care of us as best he could. Now, you'll never make up for the lost years, but you can start trying to patch things up with her." Nax went on. "The best time was immediately after you left – the second best is now."

Receiving no response, only an upset look from Markan, Nax decided to head out and go back to the ship. He quickly caught up with Kyra and Lexi, and they all walked back together, the only sound being that of the rain drizzling against the ground. Lexi in particular was unusually stoic, especially given her outburst of rage just a few minutes ago.

Once they had boarded the ship and closed the ramp, though, that completely changed. Lexi collapsed into a crying mess before they even entered the ring corridor of the ship. "Sithspit!" Lexi cursed as she fell to the floor, banging her head against the interior plating. "Fragging pile of kriffing bantha fodder sleemo garbage!" she shouted out between tears, throwing every insult she could think of in her blind rage at her dad. Nax and Kyra immediately got down on the floor with her to comfort her, with Nax rubbing her shoulder, and Kyra putting her in a gentle embrace. "I went to vent everything he's done to me and get it out of my system, but now I'm even more angry about it, for Zeli's sake!" she blathered as she buried her face behind her long bangs. "I'm so angry that if we were on Zeltros I'd have every damn Zeltron on the planet jumping down my throat about it! _Shes'han!_ " she cursed again, this time in what Nax and Kyra could only assume was the Zeltron language.

Nax gently squeezed her shoulder. "Being angry about this is natural, Lexi. Stop beating yourself up over it so much." he reasoned, before moving his hand to stroke her hair.

Lexi suddenly snapped her head to look at him, causing him to recoil his hand back. "You don't understand, Nax! Zeltrons aren't supposed to ever be angry like this over anything! We're a race of stars-be-damned thrill seekers and hedonists – we live in the moment, we're not supposed to get caught on things like this!" she shouted again, burying her head in her knees.

Kyra and Nax exchanged glances, before they both turned back to looking at Lexi. "Lexi, I want you to answer this for me – why do you feel like you've got to stick to some asinine social norm that nobody on this ship sticks to?" she asked, sitting down crosslegged next to Lexi. "We're not Zeltrons, Lex. We're your friends, and we accept you just as you are."

Lexi curled deeper into a fetal position, but lifted her head, showing her flushed face and tired eyes. "I know that, Ky, but neither of you can possibly understand how I feel." she murmured, before pulling her leg back to rest her chin on it. "Whenever you feel like, I don't know, like you want to break something or knock something over? That feeling for me gets amplified like I want to punch a damned hole in the walls, and right now, I feel like I could blow the whole ship up. It's awful." she whimpered, raising her arms and covering her face with them.

Kyra reached out and rubbed Lexi's back in an attempt to comfort her. "You wanna try and do something to get your mind off your dad?" she offered, and Lexi glanced at her from behind her bangs.

"…Sure." Lexi muttered, and Kyra helped her up, jokingly brushing Lexi's clothes off with her hand. "Let's try that one holotable game, uh, Galactic Battlegrounds, right?"

Nax smirked as they headed to the lounge. "Want me to bust out the drinks?" he offered, earning a cheerful look from Lexi, and an excited one from Kyra. "Guess that's a yes, then." he said with a chuckle.

* * *

The night had gone by practically in a blur, the three of them having played Battlegrounds well past their usual sleeping hours, so when they inevitably woke up in the lounge, they'd be in for one hell of a hangover. A couple cases of alcohol had been drunk, but the three of them had a blast just being able to forget their responsibilities and what laid before them, if only for a few hours. As Nax's eyes fluttered under his immense headache, he felt something warm surrounding him. After managing to keep his eyes open for more than a few seconds, he looked down to see both of the girls, snuggled up to him and blissfully passed out.

Struggling to remember what exactly happened last night, it eventually came to Nax that they played a few practice rounds, where Nax was using a bunch of oddball cards of mercenaries and criminals, Kyra threw around some Imperials, and Lexi played with the CIS. Arfive also came in around halfway into their practice matches, and played the Republic, before leaving after Katy needed him for something. The drinks hadn't been busted out quite yet, but they were still having a grand time regardless.

Once they were done learning the game and goofing off, the drinking game began. Take a shot every time you get hit by a crit, take a shot for missing point-blank shots, down the whole bottle for getting your squad wiped, and so on. As the night progressed, their plays became increasingly nonsensical, even comedic, like Lexi using an MTT to breach a single floor home, wiping out half of her squad on accident, or Kyra accidentally calling in orbital support on her own troops, prematurely kicking her out of the game, and Nax repeatedly trying to bribe his own troops.

Lexi slowly stirred in Nax's arm, raising herself to sit straight up, before yawning, her eyes still shut. When she fluttered them open, Nax elbowed her lightly. "Sleep well?" he asked, and she glanced at him with a smile.

"Mhm." she replied, stretching her arms behind her head. "You know, for basically being a wall of muscle under all your gear, you're surprisingly comfortable to sleep on." Lexi rambled, evidently still tired. "…Then again, I think I say that about everyone that I like."

Right as Nax was about to respond to her, Kyra began to stir. Instead of yawning or stretching, or even saying good morning, she instead lurched forward onto the holotable, holding her head. "…Suns, that's one killer headache." she muttered.

Lexi chuckled and half raised her arm to point at Kyra. "Hah, you're a lightweight!" she teased, and Kyra lazily swatted her hand at Lexi out of frustration.

"Not my fault I don't have two livers, Lex." Kyra snapped back, still holding her head.

Nax sidled his way out of the seat and headed over to the conservator, grabbing out a bottle of water. "Here, catch." he said, throwing the bottle underhanded at her, which Kyra caught with surprisingly little issue, given her hangover. To Nax, it almost seemed like the bottle drifted into her hand, but he dismissed it as his eyes playing tricks on him, which wouldn't be too far-fetched, given that he had his own little hangover that he needed to nurse, and that thought reminded him to grab his own bottle.

Just then, Kelah poked her head into the lounge. "Oh, you three are up?" she said, sounding a little bit surprised. "From how much I saw you three drinking, I thought you'd be out until way later." she went on, a hint of disdain coming from her at the mention of them drinking.

"And a good morning to you too, Kelah." Nax snarked as he uncapped his bottle and drank, before putting the cap back on and sitting back in the lounge seat next to Lexi.

Kelah rolled her eyes at Nax's comment, and came out of the archway fully. "Sorry, I'm supposed to abstain from alcohol, _Nax_." she retorted, before finally dropping the snark. "Anyways, I've cracked the file wide open."

"The one on Mau-Sanir?" Kyra questioned after putting her bottle down mid drink.

Kelah nodded. "Yeah – we've got the short end of the stick, but it's enough to make a move on their project." she briefly explained, before looking over at Nax. "Come see me in the cockpit once you've all eaten, and we'll get something sorted." she finished, before heading back down the corridor.

As if serving to make him sitting back down utterly pointless, Nax's stomach grumbled at the mere suggestion of eating, so he got up and headed over to the galley. "Eopie omelets, anyone?" he offered.

"I'll take some hash with mine, thanks." Kyra said, brushing her bangs out of her face.

"Gimme nerf grits!" Lexi ordered, practically demanding Nax to do as she asked.

"Coming right up." Nax said as he reached into the conservator and pulled the ingredients out.

As he reached into one of the cabinets to grab some pans, Lexi suddenly spoke after everyone had been staying quiet. "Hey, uh…" she stumbled, causing Kyra and Nax to both look at her, the latter over his shoulder. "…I appreciate what you guys did last night. I just – I really needed something to take my mind off my dad. I'm mad as hell at him, but I don't _hate_ him. I... shouldn't have said that to him."

Kyra threw her hand over Lexi's shoulder and jokingly nudged her. "Any time, Lex." she said, sounding appreciative of what Lexi thought of her and Nax's admittedly meager effort.

Nax cracked the first of several eggs over the pan. "Yeah, any time." he echoed, before firing the stovetop up. "We could maybe do with a little less booze, though."

Lexi shot forward in her seat. "What?! The booze was the best part!" she protested, and Nax gave her an incredulous look. "Hell, I have a few ideas for how we can add some Zeltron flavor into the mix." she added on suggestively, causing Nax to burst into laughter.

"Suns, Lexi, you might as well just say orgy and have that be the end of it!" he joked, causing Lexi to mock offense.

"Hey, we aren't all like that!" Lexi retorted, faking anger. Nax burst out into laughter again.

"Sure, you might not be, but I'm pretty sure most Zeltrons are!" he snapped back as he made the omelets. "I can't count on both hands how many times I heard about Zeltrons getting arrested in Mos Eisley for exactly that!"

Lexi mimicked frustration and huffed, sticking her nose up in the air and puffing out her cheeks. Kyra jokingly elbowed Lexi again. "I mean, to be fair, you _have_ been hitting on the both of us, Lexi." she added on, causing Lexi to huff at her, too.

"Have not!" Lexi retorted.

Nax raised a finger to interject. "Actually, you have. You called the both of us cuties when you introduced us to Eath." he pointed out. Just then, Arfive came into the lounge and, overhearing the conversation, immediately replayed their introduction with Eath, causing Lexi to whack him, earning her a shrill series of chatters from the droid. "I also seem to remember you snuggling up against me and flirting the other day." he tacked on as Lexi rubbed her hand and wrist.

Kyra leaned back with a smug look on her face. "So, you ready to admit it?" she teased as Lexi crossed her arms in defeat.

Giving Kyra a playful scowl, Lexi puffed her cheeks. "Fine!" Lexi pouted, keeping her scowl up. "Yeah, I think you're both attractive, that doesn't mean I want us all to throw rings on our fingers!" she finished.

"Suuure." Kyra said, drawing her voice out playfully. Lexi gave her an elbow in response, causing Kyra and Nax to both laugh at Lexi's frustration with their teasing.

* * *

The three of them entered the cockpit to be greeted with Nevda and Kelah sitting in the pilot and copilot chairs, likely having been discussing something before they came in. "What've we got, Kelah?" Nax asked, and wordlessly, Kyra produced a pocket-sized holoprojector, which produced a scan of yet another warehouse, or at least something that looked like one.

"Not much." Kelah said, a hint of disappointment echoing in her tone. "We've only got an address and a blueprint – 45 Lampway, on level 1309." she stated, before hopping out of the seat and moving to set the hologram in the center of the room Kelah traced her finger along a stairwell that was directly left of what looked like the main entrance. "Best guess? This is where they're working on Mau-Sanir. It's obviously some kind of virus, given Rest's line of work, so we need to be _extra_ sure we don't contaminate ourselves with whatever they're working on."

Nax crossed his arms and leaned against the wall. "Any idea on how much security is gonna be there?" he asked.

Kelah shifted her gaze to him. "Judging by what few images of the place I could find on the holonet, not much. There's two door guards outside, but inside there's probably more. Pack an extra power pack or two."

Not moving an inch, Nax kept his eyes focused on Kelah. "We got an entry plan?" he asked, before finally looking over the hologram.

"The front door." Kelah answered, utterly deadpan. Before anyone could protest, though, Kelah tapped the upper corners of several of the rooms. "These are all ventilation shafts, from what my lace is telling me, and they're all too small to fit any of us, so we've only got the front door."

"No fire exit?" Lexi chimed in.

"Bold of you to assume they built this place to code." Nevda suddenly quipped, before returning to her self-imposed silence.

After waiting a moment for anyone else to get their smart comments out of the way, Kelah resumed. "So, once we're inside, we're heading directly into the basement. Nax, Kyra, and I will clear the basement, while Lexi pulls up the rear. Any questions?" she asked, and waiting for a response. Kelah clasped her hands together. "Then we're leaving now."

* * *

Reika slowly descended a rope hanging over the side of the Mare's Leg Cantina. In her pack was a single modified detpack, ready with what Rest had cooked up for every damned butcher and technological abomination on this hellworld. Her chest was tight from the anticipation – so much so that she could probably choke herself on it.

Retrieving her screwdriver as she came down to a ventilation hatch, Reika stabilized herself against the duct, and removed the top two screws, catching them and pocketing them, before pulling the hatch down and out. She also pocketed her screwdriver, before taking her backpack off and reaching in, grabbing the detpack.

Clutching her backpack with her legs, Reika carefully put the detpack inside of the duct and engaged the maglocks, securing it to the vent. She then entered the passkey and swiped a keycard, finally confirming the charge had been armed and was now ticking down to detonation.

Suddenly feeling an urge to get out of the area, Reika pulled back, flipped the vent hatch back up, and returned the top two screws to their original positions, before storing her screwdriver, throwing her pack back on, and climbing the rope up. Hoisting herself up over the edge, she pulled the rope up with her, unwrapped it from its post, and then put it in her pack.

Reika pressed down on her commlink as she moved across the rooftops to the extraction. "This is Reika – the charge has been planted. Heading to extract now." she reported. As expected, she received no reply.

The old comm encryption had most likely been compromised, and to safeguard their actions, the Arch-Canon had implemented strict one-way communications between him and Reika.

The end was near for the abominations.

* * *

Nax kept his eyes trained on the main entrance through the rangefinder. "Coast is clear." he reported calmly. "No sign of any door guards, looks abandoned."

After injecting a fresh shot of nupoz into her arm, Kelah poked her head around the corner, using her mask's built in macrobinoculars to check for herself. "Confirmed, the guards are gone." she said, before glancing at Sidewinder perched on her shoulder. "Move up and scan pulse the building." Kelah ordered, and Sidewinder floated up, doing exactly as told, before letting off a scan pulse. The building showed up completely on Kelah's visor. "The whole place is empty. I've got a bad feeling about this." she mumbled as the four of them approached the entrance, Kelah leading the group, with Nax following her, and Kyra between him and Lexi, all with their weapons out.

They split and stacked up against the door, and after counting down from five, Kelah opened the door, each of them swiftly moving in and setting up potential crossfire zones in the pitch-black room. Switching her mask into low light mode, she flipped a light switch, revealing a massed pile of bodies in varying states of decomposition, but they were all piled neatly into a sort of spire, earning shocked gasps from Kyra and Lexi as they stepped back in horror. Nax and Kelah, though, made no sound.

Out of a sickened curiosity, Kyra moved to get a closer look, but Nax quickly yanked her back by the arm. "Don't touch that, Kyra." he ordered, glancing from her and then to the bodies. "Rest might've contaminated them."

Kelah half-circled the bodies from a safe distance, observing them. "They're all wearing Pather gear." she noted, pointing at their robes. "No wounds, but they're bleeding from every part of their bodies. Why?"

Lexi took a look at the bodies herself, and noticed something off about the exposed arm of a young woman. "Wait, look, this one's got surgical scarring on her arm." she said, and Kelah rushed over to confirm.

"…Those aren't just surgical scars, those look like the kind you'd see after getting a fresh aug." Kelah realized, before turning to her droid. "Sidewinder, scan the bodies. Check for enhancements." she ordered, and Sidewinder did so, maintaining a short distance from the bodies as he scanned. Each body added more and more augmentations to the list that Sidewinder had put on her HUD – muscle strengtheners, neural laces, artificial lungs and the like. It was like a little treasure trove for Harvesters, but the fact remained that these were _Pathers_ , not Synthskins, Harvesters, or even regular laborers. The Path being hypocritical would be almost amusing to her, if the idea of the Path forcibly augmenting its people weren't so disconcerting. "…Let's get a move on. Don't touch _anything_ if you can help it."

The group proceeded down into the basement, finding the lights on, but dimmed, despite the basement's unusually advanced look given that this was supposed to be a Pather base. Perhaps Rest had funded this, perhaps not. Regardless, the basement consisted of a long hallway that led out into five rooms, four on the side, and one at the very end. "Split up and check the rooms. Lexi, you're with me." Kelah ordered, and Lexi nodded, falling in behind her while she checked the first room on the left. The story was the same as the basement hall – completely abandoned and barren of any sign of habitation. It looked like there used to be cabinets and equipment in here, but they looked like they had been recently torn out. After quickly clearing the room to confirm that it was empty, Kelah and Lexi moved to the next room right as Nax and Kyra did. "Find anything?" she asked.

"Nope. You?" Nax answered.

"Nada. Check these last two rooms anyways." Kelah said, and then the two groups moved up to their respective doors. Carefully opening the door with her free hand, Kelah poked the barrel of her bryar pistol inside as she opened it, with Lexi covering her back. Again, the room had been recently abandoned, but this one wasn't empty – there was a large pile of nupoz pill bottles and autoinjectors lying on the center countertop. Carefully approaching them, Kelah quickly realized that they were all empty, which only served to add to her discontentment and concern. A quick sweep found nothing else of note, so she returned to the hall. "Found some empty nupoz, but that was it." Kelah reported as she shut the door behind her.

"That room was empty, too." Nax said, pointing behind him with his thumb. "So, last room?" he said with a shrug, stacking up against the last door regardless. Kyra quickly followed behind him, her '44 raised and ready.

"Last room." Kelah echoed, repeating the maneuver with Lexi. Counting down from five, Lexi pulled back and kicked the door off of its hinges, sending it to the floor like dead weight. The four of them quickly filtered in, took stock of the room, and formed a firing line.

Nax gave Kelah a side glance. "You're scary, you know that, right?" he quipped.

She smirked behind her mask. "Stealth is good and all, but nothing beats a little shock and awe." she replied, before giving a hand motion to move up. "Come on." she ordered, and the group advanced the narrow hall, opening into some sort of lab. Once again, the equipment had been stripped, but there was still some stuff that had been left behind, namely a hazmat suit and some handheld decontamination equipment.

Once they entered the actual lab part of the room, a hologram lit up in the center. It was none other than Amhe Rest, dressed in a simple labcoat and carrying a medium-sized vial of… something. _"Greetings."_ he said calmly. _"You all almost certainly know who I am and what I do, and, seeing as you will all likely be dead within a few days, I'll skip the formalities."_ he continued with a polite malice.

Kelah stepped forward. "Why are you working with the Path?!" she said in an accusing tone.

Rest simply laughed with an unearthly echo. _"…I do not work for the Path. I simply provide my services to those with the capital to back my work."_ he explained as he cradled the vial like a baby. _"…Although I consider my work important scientific research, sowing anarchy and chaos is rather fun benefit of the job."_ he said, sounding bored with himself. Lexi finally had enough, and started to approach the holoprojector, pulling her slicing gear out and getting to work on tracing the broadcast.

Rest ran his fingers along the vial. _"That said, in the few cases where your crowd of bounty hunters and mercenaries get close to me, I sometimes like to play a little game with them."_ he continued, before holding the vial out in both hands. _"This is the antidote to Mau-Sanir – if you can find me, it's yours._ _ **If.**_ _"_

Kyra scratched her head in confusion. "What even _is_ Mau-Sanir?" she asked, and Rest's gaze fell upon her.

" _Wouldn't you like to know?"_ Rest replied, before he gave as sly of a smile as a Givin could. _"That's the surprise. Now, if you aren't all dead soon, I bid you good luc-"_ he said, being cut off as the hologram glitched out.

Lexi stood up, holding her datapad in her arms as she stashed her slicing gear. "Traced his signal." she said, half mumbling, before looking up at Nax, and then back to her datapad. "Looks like it came from an asteroid base in the belt around Fusu."

"Fusu?" Nax and Kyra said in unison.

"Gas giant in the outer reaches of the system. The base'll probably be a bitch to find, given the size of the belt." Lexi explained, looking closely at her datapad. "…Buuuut, I think with some simple math, we'll be able to find it faster than without what I've just swiped from his signal."

Kelah quickly pushed past the holoprojector and scanned the lab, before turning back to the group after having found nothing else of note. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's get a move on!" she said, eagerly heading for the exit.

Nax held out a hand to stop her. "Easy there, Kel. Let's plan this out rationally." he cautiously said, before looking to Lexi. "You said it was an asteroid base, right?" he questioned, and Lexi nodded to confirm. "Then in that case, our boss might have something to help with that. Come on, let's pay him a visit."

* * *

Nax, Kyra, and Lexi rounded the street corner that led to the Mare's Leg, idly chatting amongst themselves. Kelah and Nevda had also decided to tag along, mostly to assess whether Vopa would be a threat to the Ascendancy or not.

Kyra sprinted ahead of the group, turned around, and walked backwards to get a look at the group. "So," she said, clasping her hands together. "Any votes on what Mau-Sanir is?"

Kelah moved her hand under her hood and scratched the base of her neck. "Some sort of anti-aug and anti-borg virus is my guess." she posited. "Those bodies we found in the lab, they weren't wounded from the outside, it looked like they bled out internally, and seeing as how I found a stockpile of empty nupoz injectors and bottles, I'm going with contaminating the supplies of nupoz."

Nevda threw her hand around Kelah's shoulder, accidentally bumping Sidewinder in the process. "I'm going with what she said." she said with a cheeky grin.

Kyra looked over to Nax and Lexi. "What about you two?"

Nax shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine, Kyra."

Lexi leaned forward and acknowledged Kyra's question, but said nothing else, causing Kyra to turn back around. Even outside, they could hear the patrons inside the cantina, and it sounded packed. "Sheesh, sounds like Eath's swamped." Lexi noted.

Just as they were about to cross the windows of the cantina, an explosion rocked the area, and a massive plume of fire burst from the windows of the cantina, sending glass shards and shrapnel flying out onto the street, immediately killing traffic.

The five of them had been knocked flat on their backs from the shockwave, and they taken some time to recover. Once their senses returned to them, a faint pink mist had settled over the area, and most pedestrians were slowly backing away, and although a brave few were trying to get inside, they were unfortunately blocked by a large chunk of debris. The group ran over, and Kelah shoved her way through the crowd at the door. "Move it, I'll clear the way!" she shouted as she pushed through a Rodian and a Twi'lek.

As soon as she was at the front of the crowd, Kelah grabbed the middle support bar of the door, and, fighting through the searing sensation, ripped it from its hinges. Throwing it over her head and onto the street, she slid in under the rubble and braced herself against the wall, summoning every bit of strength to push the chunk of duracrete out of the way. Nax and Kyra pushed their way through to give her a hand as she struggled, and, together, they finally managed to clear the debris.

Their group was the first inside the burning cantina, and the very first sign of anyone moving was Vopa carrying Eath over his shoulders. Vopa had a piece of rebar lodged in his lower abdomen, while Eath was missing his left leg and had a piece of shrapnel jabbed in his middle eye. Nax and Lexi immediately ran over to help the two out onto the street. "Your timing's about as good as your dad's, kid!" Vopa hacked out in gratitude as the pedestrians cleared the way for them.

Eath had been drifting in and out of consciousness from the shock, but finally managed to become lucid enough to notice Lexi. "Lexi!" he choked out to get her attention, spitting blood onto the pavement. "Lexi, your dad's still in there!"

Lexi shot him a horrified look. "Where?!" she demanded to know, but Eath had already slipped back into unconsciousness.

Setyani suddenly came over, apparently no worse for wear. He slipped his arm under Eath's and pointed back into the cantina. "I've got the boss. You go and find your dad."

Lexi didn't need to hear anything else, and immediately let go of Eath, barreling through the crowd with no concern. She immediately started scanning the bar for any sign of her dad, but could barely see through the smoke. Stepping aside for a Devaronian carrying two people out, Lexi vaulted over the counter, and, looking towards the back room of the cantina, spotted a small pile of rubble, with a vaguely purple hand sticking out. Vaulting the counter once again, Lexi rushed over and started trying to remove the rubble.

Kelah and Nevda came from the back room carrying a burly Sullustan, but once she noticed Lexi's struggling, Kelah handed her place off to Kyra and moved to Lexi, helping her tear the rubble off, gradually revealing Markan, scorched with burn marks and impaled on several pieces of rebar, bleeding heavily. The rebar was mostly in his abdomen, but a few pieces were lodged in his upper chest. His left arm had also been severed at the shoulder, leaving only a bloody stump. He turned a pained look to Lexi, hacking up blood, but otherwise saying nothing.

Kelah looked his body over. "He's bleeding pretty bad." she stated, trying to find a way to remove him from the rebar. "Lexi, if we take him off this rebar, we need to get him bandaged _fast_ , otherwise, there's no guarantee he won't bleed out."

Lexi wordlessly knelt down, and Markan stared her in the eyes. "Do it." he said through gritted teeth. Breathing in, Lexi mentally braced herself, and she reached under Markan's back with Kelah. Holding her right hand out, Kelah counted down from five. As soon as she hit one, the two women lifted Markan with every bit of strength they had, and he howled like an animal being skinned alive, from both the pain of having the rebar inside of him, and from the searing heat of the metal. Blood painted itself along the rebar as they lifted him, and once they finally pulled him off, came gushing in a torrent from his opened wounds.

The pair quickly went to support him and moved as fast as they could in getting him out and onto the street. They managed to find a clear space to lie him down, and once they did, they both started trying to apply pressure to his wounds. Sirens echoed in the distance, and before long, emergency speeders pulled up. Two mixed squads of Underworld cops and Stormtroopers dismounted and dispersed the pedestrians, setting up a perimeter around the wounded. Two more speeders pulled up, one unloading several medics, and another unloading firefighting droids, who immediately set to work in quelling the blaze.

One of the medics noticed Lexi and Kelah and immediately ran over to them, hand halfway inside of his bags. Kelah moved aside for him, and the medic immediately set to work on bandaging Markan's stump of an arm. "Hang in there, man, you're gonna be alright!" the medic said in an encouraging voice as he dressed the wound. Markan's head began to drip and his skin started to pale, and Lexi held his head up. "Hey! Talk to me, man. Where're you from, huh? What's your name?" the medic tried to ask in an attempt to keep Markan focused and awake.

Blood spilled from Markan's mouth. "I… I'm Markan. Markan Sapphyra." he choked out, raising his free hand to cup Lexi's face. "…And this… is my daughter, Lexi." he continued, his voice getting more distant, even as Lexi began to silently cry. His breathing had begun to slow. "…Lexi, do you remember what you wanted to be when you grew up?"

Lexi put her hand over his to try and hold him close. "I… wanted to play the xantha. Lead player in a band between all my friends." she answered after some rumination.

Markan gave a weak chuckle as he stroked her face. "…That's right, honey. Do you remember where we used to live?"

Lexi struggled to think through her tears. "…In the Ranha district, twenty-nine Amplight lane, fifth house on the left when coming from the market, right?"

Chuckling again, Markan patted Lexi's face. "…That's right, Star Angel." he said, before hacking up more blood. "When you can, I want you to go there and check your old room. Okay?" he requested, grabbing Lexi with what little strength he had and shaking her.

Lexi swallowed and wiped the tears from her face. "Okay, dad. I will." she said, choking herself on her words. "…I love you, dad."

Markan's face lit up as he stroked the side of her face. "I love you too, Star Angel. I always have." he finished, his voice now barely above a whisper.

The light quickly faded from Markan's eyes, and he slumped back, his hand falling from Lexi's face. "Dad?!" Lexi cried out suddenly, and she wrapped her other arm around him, pulling his lifeless body into a hug. Lexi started to weep over her dad, and the medic only gave a token 'I'm sorry'', before he left to tend to other wounded. Gradually, the others came over to console her.

As Lexi mourned, an INN speeder pulled up, and the news crew immediately dismounted. "How's my hair?" they heard a vaguely familiar voice ask. "Good, rolling in three, two-" the voice continued, before interrupting herself. "This is Fay Tultra with INN, live at the Mare's Leg cantina after an explosion rocked the local neighborhood from inside the cantina." she said, identifying herself. Fay stepped aside to allow the cameras an unblocked view of the bodies in the street. "While the total number of casualties is currently unconfirmed, the number appears to be somewhere in the double digits." Fay continued, before the camera focused specifically on their little group. "Many in the community have likely lost friends and loved ones, such as this young woman." she went on, likely trying to stretch this for as long as possible. Fay leaned over the group. "Excuse me," she said, adopting a more polite tone. "Who was this man to you?"

Lexi didn't respond to Fay's question, instead, she continued to mourn. However, everyone else turned their angry gazes to Fay, and Nax was the only one to actually get up and approach Fay, who hesitantly offered her mic to Nax. "That's my friend, and she just lost her dad, so I'd appreciate it if you assholes got the hell out of her face and let her mourn." he angrily said.

"Real friendly, aren't you?" the cameraman snarked, and Nax turned his attention to him.

"You want me to shove that thing up your ass?" Nax threatened, and the cameraman immediately backed off. Fay had a bewildered look on her face at just how freely he was swearing.

Before the altercation could continue, an Underworld cop rushed over. "Get back outside the perimeter! Now!" he ordered to the INN crew, and they quickly complied, leaving Nax and the others alone. "Sorry about that." the officer apologized. "Fraggin' hate newspeople. They don't know when to give people space."

Nax simply nodded, and the officer returned to his position. Eventually, another transport came and took Markan away.

* * *

Before Vopa had been loaded into a medical speeder, he handed off a datacard to Nax and told him that what he needed was on that card. As it turned out, the datacard contained the location of a storehouse on 1310 that the Hivers used to store smuggled weaponry. One of the officers in charge of handling the warehouse had already known they were coming, and handed off a crate full of proton torpedo warheads to them, alongside a detpack and detonator to go with.

At the moment, they were exiting Coruscant's atmosphere, while Nevda and Arfive were charting their course to Fusu. Jumping at Fusu within the system was out of the question, so that meant they had to go at sublight, which would take around eight to twelve hours, given that Fusu was near the edge of the system. As they received clearance to leave the planet from Star Control, Nax left the pilot's seat to go to the lounge where Kelah, Kyra, and Lexi were.

Nevda coughed.

* * *

 **That's it for this chapter.**

 **I'm pissed at myself for missing my March deadline and instead posting this in April, but whatever, curse of being lazy, I guess.**

 **I can't believe the fucking odds of me writing a virus plot into a story right around the time there's a global pandemic. Jesus Christ.**

 **Anyways, the rewrite of the early chapters is still going on, but a bit slower since I wanted to get this chapter out of the way. We're coming up on the end of the Coruscant chapters, unless I change my mind and go with a minor arc I've already created a character for.**

 **Until next time, and remember, STAY THE FUCK INSIDE!**

 **-Tweak**


	18. Mau-Sanir

**Holy shit. Rick May, the voice of the Soldier in TF2 and Peppy Hare in Star Fox fucking died.**

 **It's… kind of hard to process that, actually. This year fucking blows, man.**

 **Read and review.**

* * *

Lexi laid her head in Nax's lap, occasionally whimpering as he tried to comfort her. Kyra, meanwhile, came back from the galley with some freshly brewed caf, and she set it on the table near Lexi. "Here, drink this. It'll make you feel better." she said. Lexi lazily sat up, took the cup into her hands, and drank.

There was a long pause, and when Lexi was finished, she simply stared at the bottom of the cup. Her tears had dried up a while ago, so all that was really left inside of her now was emptiness. Kyra sat next to Lexi and ran her fingers through her hair, while Nax just looked on. He didn't have to imagine what she was thinking right now – he'd already been through it, and he knew the wounds weren't going to heal for a long time.

Lexi slowly set her empty cup back on the table, before shifting closer to Nax and resting her head on his shoulder, and he reciprocated, pulling her into a hug. Kelah came from down the corridor, carrying a datapad under her arm. "Hey, Nax?" she called out as she changed her focus from the datapad to Nax, and immediately changing her tone once she saw the three of them huddled together. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"

Nax shook his head as he let Lexi bury her head in his chest. "Not really. What did you want?" he said, gently rubbing Lexi's shoulder to try and comfort her.

Kelah approached the table and set the datapad down, leaning over the table. "We're going to be at Fusu's belt in twenty minutes or so, so I wanted to check with you – do we have any sort of entry plan for Rest's base?"

"No." Nax admitted as he straightened his posture. "…Well, unless you consider blasting our way in and shooting everything that moves funny to be an entry plan." he said, only half-joking.

Kelah chuckled as she took a seat at the table. "Fine by me. Who's going in aside from you and I?" she asked, looking to Kyra, who nodded to confirm that she'd be tagging along.

"I'm coming along." Lexi suddenly said, causing everyone to look at her.

"You sure, Lex?" Kyra asked out of concern.

Lexi suddenly roped Kyra into Nax's hug. "Well, I don't exactly like being sidelined with Nevda to work tech support." she said, trying to sound lighthearted despite what had happened just hours ago. "That, and I hate not being with you guys when you're out there."

"Fair enough." Kelah conceded, turning her gaze back to Nax. "What about your battle droid, Knockout?"

Nax half-shrugged with his right shoulder. "Might as well bring him along. Guy like Rest being in hiding as long as he has, I'd wager good money he's got some security that we can't just shoot away with what we've got." he opined, before sitting forward. "Knockout, get in here!"

Knockout's telltale stomping echoed through the corridor as he approached the crew lounge, finally appearing in front of them, towering over everyone in the room as usual. "Yes, Master?" Knockout boomed.

"Run a weapons and system diagnostic. You're being deployed for combat soon." Nax ordered, and Knockout stood straight up.

"Affirmative, Master." the droid boomed, moving into the back of the crew lounge and locking up.

Kelah impatiently rapped her knuckles against the table. "You know, it's times like these where I wish we could just blow the whole damn base up and be done with it." she lamented as she pulled out a nupoz injector. "But Rest's got the antidote, so if we blow the place up, we blow the antidote and any sort of research he had on it up, and we get yet another bioweapon on the loose, this time on the center of the damn galaxy." she continued to wax, prepping the injector, before finally stabbing herself in the arm with it.

Nax glanced towards the cargo hold where the warheads were stored. "Well, I mean, that _is_ the plan." he responded, a faint smirk cropping up on his face. "It's just that we need to capture Rest and rob the place first."

Kelah reeled back in surprise. "We're capturing him?" she questioned, and Nax shot her a questioning look.

"You think I'm gonna miss out on a thirty five grand bounty?" he asked, his smirk growing. "Of course we're capturing the bastard. Plus, he might have a lead on Vindi, who, if I recall correctly, the Empire _really_ wants."

Kelah chuckled briefly, and then started to cough. At first, they all passed it off as her just having a coughing fit, but that attitude quickly changed when she began hacking up a kind of pink dust onto the table. "Warning, poisonous chemical detected!" Knockout boomed, suddenly approaching the table.

Nax and Kyra quickly went to Kelah's side and tried to hold her still as she rapidly began to shake. "Poisonous? What the hell?!" Nax shouted, demanding an explanation from Knockout.

"Analyzing." Knockout automatically said, and he began to scan the pink residue. "Scans indicate the material coming from subject Kelah is a combination of neuropozyne and an unidentified chemical. Said chemical blocks neuropozyne's catalytic reaction with regular tissue by occupying the activation site, in effect, causing her body to-."

"In Basic, please?!" Kyra shouted, trying her best to keep Kelah conscious.

"She is dying." Knockout said in a stale, emotionless voice. "Suggested remedy until further treatment is possible: carbonite freezing."

Nax quickly shifted his gaze between Knockout, Kyra, Lexi, Kelah, and the corridor in a panic. "…Damnit, alright!" Nax conceded, sweeping Kelah up into his arms and storming to the cargo hold. She tried to reach out and touch him, but couldn't hold her arm steady long enough. "Just hold on, Kelah, you're gonna be okay." he reassured.

Kelah had already started bleeding. "Sidewinder… get Sidewinder…" she hacked out. "…Contact the Ascendant… tell him what's happ…" Kelah trailed, falling into unconsciousness before she could finish what she was saying, but Nax got the gist of it.

Heading into the cargo hold with Kelah in his arms, he ran past the warheads and moved to the carbonite slabs that were laying against the wall near the back. He laid Kelah in the front slap as neatly as he reasonably could, engaged the freezing process, and stood back as the cold air blasted him in the face, covering Kelah's body. Once the mist had cleared, he checked her vitals, and the light was blinking a soft yellow. Hopefully, she would make it.

As he was about to return to the crew lounge, something suddenly hit him. The mist she was hacking up was the same color as the mist outside of the Mare's Leg when the explosion happened. Whatever that mist was, was also blocking her nupoz from working, and they had found a multitude of empty nupoz injectors and pill bottles in the Pather base. Yet, Nax and the others weren't effected because they didn't _need_ nupoz.

It finally clicked - this was Mau-Sanir!

Nax immediately activated the repulsorlifts on Kelah's brick and slid it aside, freeing up the middle slab. Then, he ran as fast as he could to the cockpit. There, he found Nevda still piloting the ship with Arfive, showing no symptoms as far as he could tell. She half-turned her head and waved to Nax. "Nevda, I hate to break this to you, but you're probably infected with Mau-Sanir." Nax blurted out.

"What? How do you know?" Nevda questioned, still piloting the ship.

"Because Kelah just came down with it." he quickly responded, eager to get Nevda out of the pilot's seat and into the carbonite slab. "It basically blocks your nupoz shots from working and forces rejection to set in. You _need_ to be in carbonite until we can get you both the antidotes."

Nevda sighed and got up from the chair. "Fine. Time to get frozen, I suppose." she dryly said, before giving Arfive a devious look. "You better not crash the ship while I'm gone." she warned, and Arfive gave her a mischievous series of trills in response. Taking Nevda back to the cargo hold, Nax let her into the carbonite slab. "Hey, Nax?" Nevda asked as he prepared to engage the freezing process, and Nax looked to her. "You save our lives after this, and your new ship parts are on the house." Nevda offered, before leaning back into the slab fully. "Kick his ass for us."

"Will do." Nax promised, before engaging the freezing process, once again blasting the cold mist into his face. Again, once the mist cleared, Nevda had been frozen, locked in stasis for the time being.

Nax sighed, held his head, and leaned back against the wall in frustration. They were down two people now, so it was just him, Kyra, Lexi, and the droids against Suns-knows-what in the base. Even though she didn't believe he was at fault, Nax felt that he almost killed Kelah when the Empire attacked the compound, and he'd be damned if he was going to let her die under his watch.

Nax turned to leave the cargo hold, but saw Lexi staring at him from the entryway, leaning against it with her shoulder. "…It's Mau-Sanir, isn't it?" she asked, before coming over to look at the now occupied carbonite slabs. Nax's nod told her all she needed to know. "…Bastards." she cursed as she stared at the slabs. "First the Path takes my mom and destroys my family, and then when I finally see my dad after an entire decade and _maybe_ get a chance to eventually patch things up with him, they kill him, too." she lamented. Nax went over and pulled Lexi into a hug, and she half turned her upper body and leaned back into his arms, looking up at him with tired eyes. "I hate them. Every single Pather. I find one of them, I'm killing the bastard."

"…And what do you intend on doing about Rest?" Nax questioned, and Lexi sighed in frustration.

"Death is too good for him." she simply responded, hatred flowing from her voice like a torrent of water. "When we capture him, I want some time alone with him before we hand him over to the Empire and let the ISB have their way with him."

"Not happening." Nax denied, and Lexi gave him a frustrated look.

"Why not? Don't deny me this, Nax." Lexi questioned in confusion, prompting Nax to clarify.

"I'm not saying you can't beat the hell out of Rest, Lexi." Nax responded, and instantly, Lexi's look of frustration dissipated. "I'm saying you're not doing it alone. As much as I'd like to have him dead, I can't have you take it too far and accidentally kill him. I want my money's worth out of the bastard."

Lexi narrowed her eyes at him. "And who are you to decide what's 'too far'?" she questioned, causing Nax to point at the scar below his eye that he gained during the torture session that inadvertently served as his and Lexi's first meeting. "Fair enough." she relented, before pulling herself out of the hug. As Nax headed for the cockpit to take over for Nevda, Lexi trailed him close, taking her hand into his.

* * *

They had arrived at Fusu around an hour ago, and, in that time, had been attempting to locate the rough area of the belt where Rest's base was, running counterclockwise to the belt's rotation. "You seeing anything on scopes, Lexi?" Nax asked as he gazed outside the cockpit window.

"Nope." she simply responded, leaning back in the copilot's chair, flicking her bangs out of her face. "Just dust and echoes."

"Arfive, what about you?" he questioned, and Arfive gave a short negative trill. Nax sighed in frustration, running his hand back through his hair. "Bastard can't keep hiding forever." he muttered in annoyance. Just then, Kyra came into the cockpit, causing Nax to briefly look over his shoulder. "Hey, Kyra, come here for a second." Nax requested, and Kyra obliged, situating herself between the two seats. "You see any likely suspects for Rest's base? We aren't seeing squat."

Kyra leaned further in over the controls, before pointing to an unusually large asteroid a good distance away from the ship, located within the inner part of the belt. "That one." she declared with supreme confidence. "Look at the way the light's reflecting off of it."

Nax cracked his fingers in anticipation. "Scan it, Arfive." he ordered, and the droid gave an affirmative chirp. He looked at the scopes to his left, and, sure enough, the asteroid was slowly revealed to only be a façade – there were numerous power fluctuations coming from the asteroid, alongside signs of life support, and hidden sublight engines. Curiously enough, there didn't seem to be signs of weapons emplacements. Or a hyperdrive.

Turning his attention from the scopes back to the base, he could just barely make out a small speck ejecting itself from the side of the base facing the field, but just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone again. Nax shrugged it off and began the approach to the base.

As Rest's base grew closer, three blaster bolts shot in front of the cockpit, just narrowly missing the ship, causing the three of them to jump in their seats, and Arfive to shriek in alarm. Quickly following the bolts was a ship far too fast to identify, but Arfive's shrieking intensified, and the words 'TRI-DROID' started flowing across one of the screens. "What the hell is a Tri-Droid?!" Nax questioned as he kicked the sublight engines into gear and dove down towards the belt. The words 'INTERCEPTOR. FAST. POWERFUL.' then replaced the text. Nax turned to Lexi and Kyra. "You two, on the turrets!" he ordered, and the two of them nodded, darting out of the cockpit.

Nax's plan was to hopefully either cause the fighter to overshoot a turn and crash into an asteroid, get hit with debris, or just flat out get blown out of the air by one of the girls. Any option was preferable, as long as it was fast. Zeethree waddled into the cockpit and spotted the approaching belt. "Master Strag! I understand that we're under attack, but the odds of successfully navigating an asteroid belt are three thousand, seven hundred and twenty to one!" he prissed, and Nax waved him off.

"Who said anything about navigating?" Nax responded as he put the comm headset on. "You two there? Where's the fighter?"

Kyra's voice came through. _"I see it – he's coming around now."_ she said, before he heard the quad laser cannons go off in a burst. _"…Missed him, he's shooting back!"_ she reported once the burst had ended.

Nax kept the ship straight, and another burst of bolts flew past the ship and into the belt below, but a stray bolt hit the ship, rocking the interior. A quick glance to one of the side computers showed that the shields had been damaged, but were still holding. Another burst flared up from the top turret as the fighter shot past the ship, before disappearing beneath the belt.

Their ship wasn't trailing too far behind, and Nax settled it above an asteroid that hid the ship when one would come from the bottom of the belt. "Here's the plan," Nax said into the headset. "I've got him on scopes, so I'll call out wherever he's coming from. When he shows himself, you two have to light him the hell up before I move the ship. Got it?"

" _Got it."_ the girls responded in unison.

Nax turned his attention to the scopes. "He's coming from behind the ship in twenty." he reported, and immediately he heard the sounds of the gun turrets adjusting to face the rear of the ship. They all collectively began to count down, with Nax intently watching the scopes.

Right as the fighter crossed over onto their side of the belt, Lexi and Kyra opened fire with the blaster cannons, absolutely saturating the area in weapons fire, although Lexi's burst was short lived thanks to poor angling. _"Hit him!"_ Lexi shouted over the comms.

"Is he down?!" Nax demanded to know.

" _No, he's still flying."_ Kyra answered for her. _"He's got a huge plasma fire, though."_

"Got it, moving the ship." Nax declared, sliding the ship under an asteroid directly in front of the ship and moving to the bottom of the belt. The fighter's path appeared to reach the apex of its turn, and seemed to be coming down directly on top of the last asteroid. Scopes showed something else detach from the fighter, before flying off towards the belt. "This isn't gonna work anymore! He just shot a proton torpedo off!" Nax shouted through the headset, kicking the sublights back on and getting the ship out of the belt.

The torpedo impacted the asteroid not long after, sending a shockwave through the belt as debris created a significant hazard. The fighter shot through the asteroids regardless, and likely took damage for it. The path of the Tri-Fighter had now changed – the fighter and their ship were now in a sort of spiral pattern around the belt. Quickly turning the ship backwards, Nax cut the sublights to make the turn, and then re-engaged them, rolling the ship so that it was 'upright' again. "He's coming up from the front right side of the ship!" Nax called out, and the guns were quickly oriented.

" _I see him!"_ Lexi shouted, quickly followed by a long burst of cannon fire into the belt, blasting away smaller asteroids and, somehow, hitting the fighter, causing a second plasma fire to break out. _"Got him!"_ Lexi declared proudly, keeping her stream of cannon fire going.

The fighter began to list to the side, but was still climbing. Lexi quickly ceased fire as soon as it had gotten out of her firing angle, but Lexi's fire had just as quickly been replaced by Kyra's. The fighter wasn't even going at top speed anymore, it was kind of just… drifting. The sublight thrusters were still on, but now it was moving at a much more manageable speed.

Right as it was about to pass over the freighter, Kyra's turret blasted the fighter apart, scattering debris against the particle shields, and even hurting the regular shields from some sort of residual power source that collided with the hull. "Good kill!" Nax complimented as he brought the ship to a halt. "Moving on the base now, so sit in the turrets in case we get any other surprises." he continued. Arfive gave as best of a sigh of relief as he could in binary, and Nax reached back to pat him on the head. "So much for being deadly, huh?" he remarked, causing Arfive to shock him in offense. "Whoops. Sorry." Nax apologized. Evidently, Tri-Fighters were a touchy subject for him. Probably best not to ask about it now.

Now that the main threat was out of the way, Nax felt comfortable flying the ship to Rest's base. Dipping the ship closer to the asteroid field, he pulled close to where the fighter had ejected, and found a concealed hangar bay. It was small – probably only just big enough to fit a freighter about the size of the one he was flying now. There wasn't anything resembling service crew inside of the hangar, only an empty launch platform in the middle of the bay. There weren't any interior turrets, which didn't help assuage Nax's fears.

Carefully, he slipped the ship into the hangar, just past the hangar shielding, and rotated it so that the boarding ramp would be facing the shields rather than the doors to the bay. Engaging the landing gear, Nax dropped the ship on top of the empty launch platform, before powering down the sublights. "Alright, Arfive," Nax said as he got up out of the pilot's chair. "You get to babysit the ship. Anything tries to come close that _isn't_ us, you blast them with the cannons." he ordered, and Arfive chirped a dry comment about Nax sounding like one of his superiors. "Very funny." he quipped back, giving Arfive a little kick as he walked. "Katy gets to babysit the ramp, and Zeethree…" he trailed, turning his attention to the idling protocol droid in the corner. "…Don't touch anything."

Zeethree bowed his body. "Of course, Master Strag." he said humbly, causing Arfive to snicker. "Oh, do be quiet!" Zeethree prissed, whacking Arfive as Nax exited the cockpit.

Nax, the girls, and Knockout all met at the boarding ramp. "You two ready for this?" he asked.

Kyra raised her '44, putting her off-hand onto the bottom of the grip. "Ready when you are, Nax."

Lexi inserted a fresh power pack into Thel's blaster and twirled it. "All good here." she affirmed.

Nax looked at Knockout, who, upon registering this, bashed his fists together. "Wallhammer protocol activated. I will take point." Knockout boomed. Nax reached around for the button to drop the boarding ramp and smacked it, and the ramp hit the hangar bay floor with a loud thud.

Knockout deployed an arm mounted deflector that covered his entire body and stomped his way down the ramp, with Nax, Kyra, and Lexi following him in that order. Katy rolled up at the top of the ramp and twittered something they couldn't quite understand, before the ramp lifted back up into the ship. Knockout's attention quickly shot from the back of the hangar up to a side observation room on the group's left. "Movement detected." Knockout declared, pointing his wrist blaster at the room.

Nax raised the DC at the window, using Knockout's deflector as cover. "Is it Rest?" he questioned as Knockout relaxed his blaster.

"Negative." the droid said with a monotone confidence. "Movement is too erratic. Subject is non-organic." Knockout continued, marching to the wide entry door, but keeping his body tilted at an angle to the observation room. "Possible droid assassin in operations zone. Activating Antibody subroutines." Knockout finished. The entry door to the hangar opened for them, and the group continued through, much more alert now that they knew were being watched by something that wasn't Rest.

The hangar entryway was a T-section, yet they could only go down the left hallway, as for whatever reason, the one on the right was a dead end. Knockout stomped onwards regardless of this brief illusion of choice. The ceiling above them had a long grate running down the hallway, from the corridor ahead all the way back to the dead end. As the group marched, Knockout suddenly raised his wrist blaster and fired a burst into the grate. Startled, the others raised their weapons, but lowered them once Knockout lowered his arm. "Gone." the droid simply declared as they could all hear faint metallic footfalls running away.

"'Gone'?" Kyra questioned, poking her head out of the line to look at Knockout. "What's 'gone', Knockout?"

Knockout turned his upper torso halfway to look back at Kyra, just on the edge of his photoreceptor. "The droid assassin, Master Kyra." Knockout said calmly, before facing forward again. "From that brief try it had at taunting us, it can safely be assumed that our assassin droid is an IG-100 MagnaGuard. It's too fast and too light to be an IG-86, and what little of its movements that I could pick up were far too fluid to be an… older model of assassin droid."

"MagnaGuard?" Nax echoed in confusion. "What in the fresh hell is that?"

Lexi twirled around on her heels just to check the dead end, before glancing back at Nax. "Bodyguard droid from the Clone Wars." she answered, and Nax shot her a look that could only be described as 'so what?', causing Lexi to roll her eyes. "Let me clarify – MagnaGuards were programmed and built according to _General Grievous' standards_." Lexi continued, putting emphasis on Grievous' name. While, admittedly, it was still speculation that this was the case, even nearly twenty years on from the Clone Wars, it still warranted some consideration.

Life on Tatooine was sheltered for Nax, but even he knew what kind of weight Grievous' name carried. "…Got it." he slowly responded, raising his DC slightly now that he was firmly aware of what kind of threat this droid posed.

Knockout rounded the corridor, before suddenly standing still. "Wooow, a B2, huh? The Path must have really come through for the boss!" a nasally robotic voice sounded off excitedly. Knockout braced the arm holding the deflector, and there was a bright flash down the hall that bled back onto their side. "My receptors!" the same droid screeched.

"Engaging." Knockout declared calmly, raising his wrist blaster. Nax, Kyra, and Lexi both swung around him, and the group opened fire on the squad of B1s. Knockout and Nax sprayed into the squad, while Kyra took more precise shots, and Lexi only fired a few bursts from Thel's blaster. In just a few seconds, the droids were now a melted scrap pile on the floor, rash with blaster scoring and battle damage. "Threat eliminated." Knockout stated, before marching down the hall, taking the left door, only to come right back out. "That is the control room. My mistake." he stated dryly, before moving to the right door and opening it. Lexi chuckled briefly as they followed him.

The right door led out to some sort of modestly sized service and storage area, the sides practically stuffed with stripped fighter parts, and Lexi immediately broke formation to take a look. "Hey, look! These are sublights from an Actis!" she noted, tracing her finger along the top of the casing of the thrusters. Something else caught her eye in the pile, and Lexi reached in with both hands, pulling out a small metal ball that was half painted in a faint yellow-green color.

Nax inserted a fresh power pack and shot a moderately annoyed look at Lexi. "We can loot later, Lex." he remarked as she managed to open the ball, and a small droid fell out, dangling from the two ends. Curious, she prodded at the droid itself. Suddenly, the droid animated, and began screeching in her grasp, scaring Lexi and causing her to shriek and stumble backwards, dropping the droid on the ground. The droid had lost its sense of balance, but Lexi hadn't, and in her adrenaline rush, quickly drew her blaster again and turned the droid to scrap in a single burst.

Holding her chest to try and catch her breath, Lexi slowly rose to her feet and swallowed. "Are you done?" Nax asked, half amused at her antics. Lexi gave him a dirty look, before rejoining the group. "What even was that thing?"

"A buzz droid." Knockout replied, scanning the junk piles and raising his blaster. "There are more of them." he boomed, readying his deflector again. As they all moved into a position where they covered each other's back and quieted down, they could hear the ravenous chattering of buzz droids hidden in the piles of junk. Keeping their weapons raised, they slowly moved through the storage room. Small piles of parts would occasionally shift, but they couldn't ever get a clear shot.

There was another rustling pile on the left, just ahead of the group, and it was far more pronounced than with the other droids. They swung out into a line formation and pointed their weapons at the pile as it came tumbling down and out onto the floor. Rising from beneath the scrap metal was a far larger droid, almost insectoid in appearance. Its 'spine' curved into a half circle, and it had two blasters mounted to the arms. The droid slowly crawled out of the junk pile, revealing its tripedal legs, as well as the fact that it was clearly being controlled by a buzz droid located at the droid's base. "Droideka!" Lexi called out, tossing her blaster to the side, grabbing Kyra and Nax, and pulling them into cover, leaving Knockout in the open with his deflector shield up. Picking her blaster back up, Lexi was about to poke her head over the junk to look at the Droideka, but it opened fire before she could, and she ducked back down as bolts flew into her cover, over her head, and into Knockout's deflector.

"DIRECTIVE ONE: PROTECT THE MASTERS!" Knockout shouted out, marching forward. Slowly, the blaster fire stopped coming at them, and instead kept hitting Knockout's deflector. Nax stood up, his DC raised and ready to fire, but he kept his finger hovering over the trigger. Kyra and Lexi rose to join him.

The Droideka had its own deflector up, and the two droids were effectively staring at each other within knife-fighting distance. The buzz droid controller was panicking at Knockout's mere presence, warbling and letting out sounds of distress as it desperately tried to back the hell away from Knockout. Knockout raised his right arm, and began to slowly reach it through first his deflector, and then through the Droideka's. The buzz droid let out a shrill screech when Knockout shot his arm down and grabbed it, tearing it from its socket in the Droideka.

The buzz droid was still functional, but the Droideka deactivated, leaving Knockout free to remove the nuisance. As it flailed helplessly in Knockout's iron grip, he deactivated his deflector and grabbed the two capsules, tearing them off and throwing to the side, even as the droid was screaming in pain. He held the buzz droid closer to his photoreceptor, and although he lacked a face, was clearly looking at the droid like one would a helpless pest. Without further ceremony, Knockout crushed the buzz droid, splashing oil on himself, before he let the crumpled buzz droid fall to the floor in a heap. "Threat neutralized." Knockout boomed again as he wiped his photoreceptor off.

The other buzz droids had gone silent now, and they were seemingly clear to proceed. The three of them left their cover and fell in behind Knockout again, who had just stomped on the buzz droid for good measure. "…That could have turned out a lot worse had we not brought you, Knockout." Kyra calmly said, staring at the deactivated Droideka.

Nax turned and looked around the room. "…I don't think there's much left of the base past this room." he opined, mentally trying to process just where exactly they were on the asteroid. Rubbing his thumb against a spare power pack on his hip, he pulled it out and pointed ahead. "There's probably two, maybe three rooms ahead that're the same size as this one. After that, there might be a hall that leads to engineering, 'cause there's no way in hell he's got space where we're heading."

"A valid assumption." Knockout blurted as he approached the next door, only for it to not open. "It is locked." he declared, shutting down his deflector.

Lexi stepped out of the formation to go for the door controls. "Hold on a second, I've got it." she said, pulling her slicing tools out.

"Unnecessary." Knockout objected, centering himself against the door. Lexi paused, before stepping back as Knockout reached his fingers into the small slits. Straining himself only for a moment, Knockout forced the door open, revealing a personal medbay. On the left was a deactivated medical droid and an empty bacta tank, as well as some extra medical equipment hooked up to the tank, probably to monitor vital signs. On the right, there was a single countertop that ran the length of the room with overhead cabinets intermittently placed above it.

On the countertop itself were a few syringes that contained a light blue liquid. "Hey, Knockout?" Nax called, picking one of the syringes up. "What's in these syringes? Bacta?"

Knockout looked over and scanned the syringe. "That is, in fact, bacta." he confirmed, and Nax went to stash the syringe. "However, I would caution that, while I am not detecting infectious bodies on the injector, it would be unwise to keep these syringes on your person, given who has had access to it."

Kyra pulled the power pack release on her '44 and inserted a fresh pack. "Listen to Knockout, Nax." she advised. "Last thing any of us needs is you using one of those things down the line only for it to give you a case of bonewrack." she said, a light tremor echoing in her voice.

Nax examined the injector carefully, before tossing it back on the counter. "Yeah, good point." he conceded. As the medbay had nothing else of immediate interest to them, they headed through the next door that was, thankfully, unlocked. This new room was some sort of crew quarters – triple stacked bunks lined the left side, numbering at about twenty or so bunks, but only a few showed any sign of recent use. Aside from the door in front of them, there was also another door on the right marked 'ENGINEERING' in hastily drawn lettering

Before the group could proceed, though, there was a metallic clanging coming from overhead, and they barely had time to react before the lights suddenly cut out. There was the crashing sound of a vent hitting the floor, quickly followed by something much heavier. Nax had only just turned his helmet's low light mode on, only able to catch a mere glimpse of the MagnaGuard's blood red receptors before he, Kyra, and Lexi were all effortlessly punted into the bunks.

Nax hit the beds first, and the girls crashed right on top of him, softening their impact, but they were all down for now, leaving Knockout to defend them by himself. The lights cut back on, revealing the MagnaGuard in full – its plating was a rusted blue, and it wore a faded, torn cape with matching headwrap. "…Unfortunate, I was expecting a better fight." the MagnaGuard remarked in a deep, muffled voice, looking over at the only three organics in the room. It reached behind its back and produced an undeployed electrostaff, before extending it and twirling it around, managing to brace the pole against its forearm so that it pointed to Knockout. The MagnaGuard engaged the staff, and white-purple sparks flowed from both ends of the staff to their pointed peaks. "I do not expect a failed prototype to be much better." it taunted.

The two droids began to circle each other – the MagnaGuard was ready for a fight, keeping light on its feet, while Knockout was completely and utterly calm. "If I'm a failed prototype, then you were trained in the image of a coward." Knockout shot back.

The MagnaGuard readied its staff. "Do not speak of the General in such terms, traitor!" it hissed in anger.

" _Traitor_?" Knockout replied, bemused. "Who have I betrayed, when the Confederacy is no more?" he poised, raising his arms in a half-shrug. "If anyone were a traitor, it would have been the General." Knockout continued, and the MagnaGuard began to emit sounds of frustration.

"Enough of your treasonous words!" it shouted, before pointing its staff at Knockout's masters. "First I kill your organics, and then I kill you!" the droid proudly declared.

Knockout suddenly shot forward with speed seemingly impossible for a droid of his type, and grabbed the MagnaGuard by its neck, slamming it into the bunks. "Directive One: Protect the Masters!" Knockout boomed as the MagnaGuard grabbed his forearm with its spare hand.

"…So, you _do_ have some fight in you." the MagnaGuard noted, before echoing a mechanical chuckle. There was a heavy clunk that came from the droid's neck, and its body fell out under it, before the free hand swiped the head out of Knockout's grip. The droid backflipped away, reattached its head, and gestured for Knockout to come after him. "Try and keep up."

Knockout obliged, striding towards his opponent. The MagnaGuard briefly crouched low, before jumping over Knockout. Knockout grabbed both of his legs mid-jump, and before he could react, Knockout had already slammed his face against the floor. Knockout lifted the MagnaGuard up to slam him in the other direction, but midway through the slam, the droid had regained its senses and jabbed Knockout with its staff, before separating its body at the waist, causing Knockout to be stuck holding its legs, while his torso flew back towards the medbay door, and it used its electrostaff to catch itself against the doorframe, before finally falling, keeping itself perfectly balanced on the staff, clearly not impressed with Knockout's skills.

Knockout tossed the legs to the side and prepared to charge the MagnaGuard again. After only a few thunderous stomps, the MagnaGuard launched itself, using its staff as a springboard, and it flew over Knockout, landing perfectly on its legs which had been remotely controlled by the droid into a position to reattach themselves to the separated body. "Clever." Knockout simply said.

The droid swung its electrostaff out to its right. "Enough!" he shouted out, clearly annoyed that Knockout wasn't falling as easily as he had expected. "I tire of this game!" he ranted, pointing the staff at Knockout's masters, before swinging at Lexi and hitting her in the back.

Knockout's droid brain barely had enough time to process the fact that he had already shot a bolt into the droid, let alone that he had just shoulder charged the MagnaGuard. Caught by surprise once again, the MagnaGuard only offered token resistance when Knockout tore the electrostaff from its hands and proceeded to break it in two against its user's head. The MagnaGuard managed to catch Knockout's twin punches, locking them in a battle of attrition. "…You. You're no battle droid." the MagnaGuard strained out. "…You have the loyalty of one, but the programming of an assassin droid. What, exactly, _are_ you?"

Knockout tightened his grip, slowly crushing the MagnaGuard's hands under the immense pressure. "I?" he questioned, rousing a dark laughter from inside of him. "I am C-B3-KO, designation 'Knockout'. You have made the mistake of attacking my masters, and for that…" he trailed, pressing his advantage. "…You will be deserviced." Knockout finally finished, completely crushing the MagnaGuard's hands.

Whacking him over the head to stun him again, Knockout grabbed the droid with his left hand and his left arm with his own right. Easily tearing the arm from its socket, Knockout repeatedly hit the droid in the neck with its own arm, before jamming said arm into its chest and twisting it. Still not satisfied with his brutality, Knockout balled his right hand up and pounded on the MagnaGuard's head until it was now firmly located within its chest, the eyes only just barely poking over the shoulders. Tearing the other arm off at the elbow, Knockout casually threw it behind him, before kicking the droid to the wall.

The droid stood against the wall only briefly before its leg motivators gave out, sending it to the floor in a crumpled mess. Knockout approached once more and raised his left arm at the lower abdomen of the droid, before the panel containing his TriShot exposed itself, and he fired a single shot into its body. Quickly concealing the weapon again, Knockout placed his foot on the droid's chest, and reached over, grabbing it by the head. Encountering a surprising amount of resistance, Knockout only briefly struggled with it, before tearing the MagnaGuard's head off, along with what could only be described as a droid's spinal cord. The cape also came off the droid's head, tearing against jagged bits of metal.

Briefly holding the head up in victory, Knockout pulled it close to his receptor to examine the damage. His desire for violence had been sated for now, but just to make sure the droid would not get up again, Knockout stomped on its chest several times, irreparably destroying the torso and rendering the MagnaGuard combat ineffective. Knockout's audio receptors picked up movement behind him, and he quickly turned to see the masters had begun to recover. "Directive one completed, Masters." Knockout stated as Nax rubbed his head through the helmet, only just barely catching a glimpse of the carnage. Knockout approached them and knelt down. "Are you alright, Masters? Calculations indicate the force exer-" Knockout started to ramble.

Nax quietly waved Knockout off. "I'm fine, Knockout." he reassured, helping himself to his feet, before picking the two girls up. "You two good?" he asked.

Kyra rubbed her sides. "Banged up a little, but I'm alright." she responded, examining her armor plating. "Gear looks fine, too. Lexi?" she continued, turning to the Zeltron.

Lexi was biting down on her left sleeve, leaning against the bunk ladder for support. "…My back." she muttered, reaching around with her free hand. "…Feels like I'm just… constantly getting stabbed. Hurts like hell." she swore, pulling her hand back out to reveal a thin layer of blood on her hand. "…Son of a-" she cursed again, before flipping her coat up and to the side, showing her back to the others. "How bad is it?"

There were a few thin streams of blood beginning to flow down her back, only barely visible against her pink skin. There was also a single large mark that was half seared on her exposed back, and half on her top. Said mark also had faint strings that expanded out in all directions. "The hell? How'd you get this?" he questioned, poking at the mark, causing Lexi to arch her back and whimper in pain. "Sorry."

"Master Sapphyra was hit by the MagnaGuard's electrostaff before I could intervene." Knockout stated, lowering his body slightly. "I regret this failure immensely." he apologized.

Nax ignored the droid and reached into one of the front-mounted packs on his armor, pulling out a bacta patch. Freeing it from its packaging, Nax immediately applied it to the wound. Lexi gasped in pain at first, but slowly, she leaned off the ladder and stretched. "That's better." she cooed, flipping her coat back down.

"You sure you're good to keep going? Knockout can take you back to the ship if you want to." Nax asked out of concern, eyeing her up and down. Lexi gave an affirmative nod, before pulling her blaster out of its holster. "If you say so. I'll patch you up properly once we get back to the ship." he continued, before drawing the DC and approaching the final door, the others following suit.

The last door didn't have a sensor, and, not wanting to risk setting off a trap, Knockout let Lexi slice the door open. In under a minute, they were through, and the last room was very obviously a lab. Rest was at the far end of the lab, behind some monitoring equipment, and standing right beside him was a Zeltron in a hazmat suit. Rest had his hand on top of a canister similar to what he had in the hologram, while the Zeltron had a blaster pistol to Rest's head. All had their weapons trained on the Zeltron. Rest was only moderately annoyed with the situation. "Put the blaster down, Kaell." Rest ordered, and the Zeltron sneered.

"Like hell I will!" Kaell shouted, tightening his grip on the blaster. "You led these bounty hunters _right to us_ , so why _shouldn't_ I shoot you and make a break for it, huh?" he ranted, before looking over at the group. "They're only in it for the money, and I'm saving my own ass!" Kaell continued, before his eyes fell on Lexi, and a sick, carnivorous grin began to creep up on his face. "…You. You're that girl that lost her dad during the bombing, aren't you? INN showed the whole planet what should have been one of the most private parts of your life, didn't they?" he went on. Lexi only offered him a scowl in response, and the grin grew. "You are." Kaell said, now fully fixated on Lexi. "Tell me, how does it feel having that happen to you?"

Nax finally spoke up. "Hey, uh, if you intend on leaving in one piece, I'd maybe suggest you _don't_ taunt the guys who have you outnumbered four to one, jackass."

Kaell laughed. "You seem to be mistaken – you have no bargaining power here. I hold your bounty and everything he owns, and if you want to claim it, you will let me do as I please." he taunted, before turning his attention back to Lexi, who had now moved into a position where she could shoot Kaell without probably shooting Rest as well. "…Now, do you know what I felt when I saw you on the news? Nothing but contempt and disgust." he said with a disgusted sneer. "Empathy and compassion are for the weak, and we as a species would be better without-" Kaell continued, before stopping short as a blaster shot rang out, hitting him in the face and splattering his brains on the equipment.

Everyone had been caught by surprise – even Rest. "…Well, I guess that's one way to skin a womp rat." Nax remarked, giving Lexi a wide-eyed look through his helmet. She was visibly upset, taking heavy breaths, before pointing the blaster at Rest, who now had his hands out, waiting to be cuffed. Kyra approached him with her own blaster pointed at him, and pulled the trigger to release a stun bolt, knocking Rest out cold.

She quickly ran up to him and slapped a pair of stuncuffs on his wrists, before checking his pockets for any gadgets or traps. "He's clean." she confirmed, before turning her attention to the myriad equipment in the lab. "Knockout, got any idea where his research data would be stored?"

Knockout quickly scanned the room before walking up to a large central computer and attaching his arm to a scomp link port. "Here." he simply said as he looked around the room. "Downloading research data now. Please escort the prisoner to the ship. Do not forget the antidote."

Lexi nodded, holstering her blaster and grabbing the vial. "Right." she choked out as Nax and Kyra picked Rest up over their shoulders, leaving Kaell's body to bleed on the floor. "Don't forget the warheads, either." she reminded the other two.

* * *

The three of them, alongside all of the droids, were currently packed into the cockpit, staring out the viewport. They had looted what they could and set the charges, and Rest had been prematurely thrown into the carbonite brick after Nax decided against letting Lexi have at him.

Nax raised the detonator and held up an open hand, slowly lowering each finger, before balling it into a fist. Once that happened, he pulled the trigger on the detonator. There was but a slight delay before the base blew up on itself, scattering asteroid chunks and power conduits throughout Fusu's belt, creating a temporary hole that would, in time, be filled again.

Nax set the detonator aside and engaged the sublights back to Coruscant. "Alright, let's get the hell out of here before any patrols show up." he said, kicking back and letting Arfive handle the flight back. As the others left the cockpit, Nax took particular note of Lexi, who seemed to be deeply disturbed over _something_. He'd find out soon enough, but for now, Sidewinder was demanding his attention. "I know, Sidewinder, I know." he said, heading over to the communications console and sitting down, putting the headset on as Sidewinder plugged in.

The console turned on without Nax's input, and Sidewinder began to insert the communications code for the Ascendancy's leadership – the Grand Ascendant, specifically. When he was finished, there was a sharp tone coming from the headset, before a highly mechanical voice choked through. _"I trust you have something good to report, Voto, because we have problems cropping up left and right."_ the voice, presumably the Ascendant, said. " _Voto?_ "

Nax breathed in, before leaning forward. "Kelah isn't available right now." he responded in as stern a tone he could manage. "I'm using her droid to contact you."

" _Identify yourself immediately._ " the Ascendant ordered, clearly angry that Kelah had just given someone access to their communications on a whim.

"I'm Nax Strag, with the Coru-Hivers." Nax introduced himself. "Kelah came on-board and joined up with me and my crew to investigate the Path of Ludd."

The Ascendant made a grunt of consideration. "… _Ah, I see. She has told me of you, and she trusts you. I, unfortunately, do not trust that easily, but I'm not exactly allowed to be picky at the moment._ " the Ascendant cracked through. " _First, though, I must know – what has happened to Voto and Nevda?_ "

Nax crossed his arms in his seat and leaned back. "Both were infected with Mau-Sanir, and I have them on ice right now. They were with us when the bombing occurred at the Mare's Leg Cantina, which I believe to have been ground zero for Mau-Sanir."

The Grand Ascendant let out an electronic sigh as he took this information in. " _Most unfortunate. What of Amhe Rest and Mau-Sanir?_ " the Ascendant pressed.

"Rest is on ice, too, and we've stolen not only his research notes, but also an antidote for Mau-Sanir."

Nax couldn't see for himself, but he could tell that he had just piqued the Ascendant's interest. " _You… you have the antidote?_ " he asked, taken completely by surprise. " _Alongside Rest and his research notes?_ "

"I just-" Nax started, before being cut off by the Ascendant.

" _When can you bring them to us?_ "

Nax shot forward. "Hold on a second there, I never said anything about _giving_ them to you." he responded, annoyed that he was being pushed around. "Rest is going to the Imperials – doesn't matter if you double, triple, or quintuple the bounty, money isn't an issue for me or my crew." Nax continued, and the link went silent.

"… _He's hurt you, hasn't he?_ " the Ascendant pressed. " _Or someone close to you, I gather._ "

"Doesn't matter." Nax rather obviously deflected, and the Ascendant decided to back off silently. "I'll happily hand his research notes over to you, _if_ you have a databank I can transfer the files to." Nax offered.

The Ascendant made another grunt of consideration. " _And what of the antidote?_ " he questioned, remaining calm despite Nax's reluctance to just hand everything over to him.

"That depends on how the Empire is reacting to Mau-Sanir by the time we get to Coruscant." Nax answered, tapping his fingers against the console. "If they're not reacting in the slightest, we'll hand it off to you. If they've got their hands full, it's going to the Empire."

The Ascendant sighed from his end of the line. " _It might be more prudent to hand the antidote over to us, Strag._ " the Ascendant suggested, clearly trying to bargain for it. " _My scribes are not as mired in bureaucracy as Imperial scientists – we would be able to reproduce the antidote much faster than the Empire could._ " he offered as a thought. " _Furthermore, I also have a vested interest in curing both Voto and Nevda of this disease._ "

Nax scratched the side of his face in thought. "I'll consider it." he said, and the Ascendant let out only a lightly disappointed sigh. "That being said, I'll need to drop by anyways to hand off Kelah and Nevda to you. Do you happen to have a landing bay that would fit a YT-1300?"

There was a heavy metal _clunk_ from the Ascendant's side of the link. " _We have a hangar bay that houses ships much larger than a simple freighter. I will send you the coordinates to our church, as well as an uplink to a databank you can send the files to._ "

"Sounds good." Nax said, moving to turn the console off before pausing as he remembered something. "One last thing, I think my crew and I are all carriers. We haven't had any symptoms, but we were almost definitely exposed, so I'd have the crew that meets us in the hangar bay be naturals in biohazard gear prepped with decontamination equipment." he advised.

" _Of course – we've been taking the utmost precautions since the first several of the Faithful began to experience symptoms._ "

"See you in a day or so, then." Nax finished, shutting the console off before he cracked his knuckles and turned to Arfive. "Hey, Arfive," he said, and the droid turned his head to look at him. "Get Knockout up here and have Rest's files sent to the databank. Make absolutely sure that Knockout saves a backup we can give to the Empire, just in case." he ordered, and the droid gave a mock salute.

Nax finally sat up out of the comms terminal's chair and headed down the corridor, Sidewinder floating past him, now without a master to perch on. Knockout quickly came thundering to the cockpit from the lounge, lightly brushing shoulders with Nax, before disappearing again.

Heading down towards the crew quarters, Nax opened it to find Zeethree standing outside the single person shower on the far left side of the room, holding Lexi's clothes over his right arm while she showered, like some sort of obedient butler. Before Nax could quip about it, Lexi shut the shower off and stepped out half-naked and dripping water, the only thing covering her being a white towel. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted Nax, and the two of them exchanged embarrassed looks.

Before she could yell at him to get out, Nax had already disappeared back into the corridor, practically slamming the door behind him. However, Lexi knew he was waiting outside for either Zeethree or herself to tell him that she was decent, so Lexi decided to have a little bit of fun with it. "Look away." she ordered, and Zeethree interpreted that as 'stare at the wall'. Amused, Lexi started to dry herself off, and began to make some rather suggestive noises as she did so.

Once she had dried off, she took her clothes from Zeethree and began to dress, making sure her moans were getting louder and louder, just to mess with Nax. Once she was finally dressed in a light blue tank top and black sweatpants, stopped her moans and dismissed Zeethree.

As soon as Zeethree left the quarters, Nax traded places with him, his face flushed a deep red. Lexi smirked and leaned against the bunk. "…You know, Nax, I wouldn't be making all that noise if I didn't want you looking." she teased, a small giggle showing itself in her voice.

Nax tried, and failed, to hide his embarrassment. "…Yeah, well, maybe I didn't _want_ to look." he responded sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Lexi's mischievous grin only grew as she stood up from the bunk and walked over to Nax. "Is that why you didn't leave as soon as you saw Zeethree with my clothes?" she pressed, throwing her arms around Nax's back and looking up into his eyes. "Or why you stayed in the corridor when I started moaning?" she continued, creeping her hands up his back, much to his embarrassment, before pulling her right hand back out and tapping him on the nose, bouncing away towards her bunk gleefully. "Take a hint, dummy." she teased again as she sat down, crossing her legs and stretching.

Nax brushed it off and moved next to her bunk, resting his arm against it and looking under at her. "How's your back feeling?" he asked, blissfully ignoring Lexi's attempts at flirting, causing her to playfully roll her eyes in annoyance that Nax wasn't going to fall for her charms so easily.

Lexi feigned a light pain and bit her lower lip. "I don't know…" she trailed as she turned over and exposed her back to Nax. "It still kind of stings. Maybe you should check it for me?" she offered, pulling the back of her tank top up.

Nax went under the bunk fully to examine her wound. Slowly peeling the bacta patch back and tossing it aside, Nax rubbed his hand around where the wound had been inflicted. Parts of Lexi's skin were smooth at the impact site, mostly where the patch had just been peeled, but parts further up felt raw and even looked reddened. Lexi gasped in surprise when Nax's fingers touched them. "This hurt?" he questioned.

Lexi shot him an annoyed look from behind her bangs. "You tell me, Nax." she shot back. "Would _you_ like the feeling of having salt rubbed in an open wound?" she snarkily replied.

Nax immediately ceased rubbing the wound. "I'll… go get some bacta cream from the hold." he said, before getting up and leaving the crew quarters. As soon as Nax left, Lexi's playful attitude evaporated like a puddle in the Tatooine suns now that she was left to her own devices, even if only for a minute or so.

Lexi's thoughts quickly drifted towards her dad's last words, or to be more specific, what he had wanted her to do. She couldn't help but wonder just what exactly he had planned for her at her old home. As she sifted through her thoughts as the possibilities, something came to the forefront of her mind. Whenever mom and dad got into a fight, dad would usually go out and get the two of them an apology gift, generally something inexpensive like sweets. She had to wonder if he'd done it one last time.

Nax came in soon after, carrying a small bottle of the bacta cream. Taking his left glove off, Nax uncapped the bottle and squirted the cream onto his hand. "Hold still for a minute, Lex." he requested, before applying the cream to the wound. Nax was initially caught off guard by Lexi's gasps, but he quickly realized that she wasn't faking it this time. Once the cream had been applied, Nax wiped the residue off on his right glove. "Better?" he asked as he put his loose glove back on.

Lexi flipped over and sat up, legs crossed. "Lots." she said appreciatively, stretching her arms behind her head and yawning.

Sitting down next to Lexi, Nax began to gradually undo the armor plating on his gear, and piece by piece, the suit clattered to the floor, leaving Nax in only the undersuit, now able to move much more freely. Something crossed his mind, and he looked to Lexi, who had been admiring him the whole time. "Hey, Lex?" he asked, pausing for a second to let Lexi catch up with his question. "When you shot that guy holding rest hostage, you looked really pissed. More than you should have been, all things considered. Why is that?"

As soon as Nax finished what he was saying, Lexi's expression immediately changed, and he knew he had hit something he shouldn't have. "…Zeltrons have a, uh, special term for people like him." she exposited, brushing her hand through her hair. "We call them Demagols – Zeltrons that've lost their sense of empathy, or just never had it in the first place. The majority of us don't consider them to be part of our own kind."

That word kept repeating in his head. "…I think my dad called someone a demagol once." Nax said, not sure what the significance of that word meant.

"He was Mando, so that makes sense." Lexi responded as she tipped over and leaned against Nax's shoulder.

"How?" he pressed, causing Lexi to look up at him.

Lexi breathed in as she tried to recollect the old fables her parents had told her. "From what I remember, Demagol was a Zeltron scientist that worked with the Mandalorians during the, well, the Mandalorian Wars. Experimented on kids, made genetic abominations, real fun stuff. The few _actual_ Mandos I've met on Nar Shaddaa have all told me it's the same way with them, too."

"…Huh." Nax simply said, before going to crack his fingers. Desperate to change the subject to something less dark, Lexi saw an opportunity to tease him further, and immediately threw herself into his lap, staring up at him with a cheeky grin. "Damnit, Lexi." Nax complained, earning a giggle from the alien as she got comfortable. The two of them sat there like that for a while, until Lexi looked up at Nax, a dim look in her eyes.

"…Hey, Nax? Can I ask you a favor?" she eventually asked, and Nax looked down at her, waiting for her to speak. "…When we have time, can you take me to the place I used to live as a kid? Just the two of us? I-" she stammered, briefly losing her train of thought. "…Before he died, dad told me to go there and check my old room, and I feel like there's _something_ there waiting for me."

Nax nodded once. "Sure." he responded simply, briefly catching Lexi off guard. She had expected some kind of resistance or even a straight up 'no' from Nax, but she'd been blindsided just by how fast and how blunt he was in agreeing to go. She was stunned only for a few seconds, before tears quickly welled up in her eyes, and she forced Nax into a hug, whispering thanks into his ear.

* * *

Nax began the landing sequence for the Ascendancy's hangar bay with some assistance from Arfive. The bay was large enough to pack multiple corvettes in, but eerily enough, the bay was completely barren save for a few humanoid figures in hazmat gear. In fact, barren was an unusually apt word to describe Coruscant when they had gotten back. Skylanes had significantly fewer airspeeders in them, and most things walking around, both on the surface and in the underworld, were the police droids, Underworld cops, and Stormtrooper patrols. Even the Star Destroyer in orbit that had given him permission to land had tried turning him away.

It was like everyone had just packed up and left, and to see what the beating heart of the Empire basically go still was unsettling, to say the least.

Without any issue, Nax landed the ship in the hangar and shut the sublights down, before getting up and heading back into the cargo hold where Kyra was waiting for him. "Creepy, isn't it?" she asked as she turned the repulsors on for Kelah and Nevda's carbonite slabs.

"What, the lack of people?" Nax asked as he set the antidote inside a case that was impact-hardened on the outside and with a rigid foam on the inside. Nothing short of an explosive could break the vial contained inside.

Moving the slabs as gently as she could over to the cargo hold lift, Kyra hummed an affirmative, before stepping aside for Nax to load the incredibly delicate cargo. "Yeah, I mean, this is _Coruscant_ , you know, shining jewel of both the Republic and the Empire, population in the trillions, main attraction of the Core." she went on, putting her hands in her pockets and stepping back as Nax lowered the cargo lift into the hangar. "Seeing it so empty just feels… weird, you know?"

Nax nodded. "Yeah, I get you." he said as the hazmat guys took the two slaps, as well as the case, and loaded them up into biohazard containers. "Hey!" he shouted down, catching their attention. "Why's nobody out?"

"Quarantine!" one of them shouted back. "The disease's been spreading fast, and the Empire's trying to get a handle on things, nobody's allowed out or off-world without the proper paperwork!"

Nax cursed under his breath, before giving them a thumbs up. "Take care!" Nax finished, before closing the lift back up, and he turned back to see Kyra transfixed on the painting of the middle aged woman with the white hair, which was resting upright against a pile of crates alongside other loot pilfered from Bullen's home. "…You really like that painting, huh?" Nax questioned with his arms crossed.

Kyra stared for several more seconds. "Huh?" Kyra mumbled, before she snapped back to reality. "Oh, uh, yeah. I guess." she rambled, still staring at the painting.

"Why?"

Kyra paused and scratched her chin, thinking of an answer. "…I don't really know, actually." she answered honestly before crossing her arms. "I mean, it's definitely a nice looking painting, but I can't place exactly what about it keeps my attention." Kyra continued, sighing in annoyance.

Nax began to mentally transpose Kyra's image upon the woman. Change her hairstyle to be less messy and more regal, and age her up, and Nax had to admit, the two looked very similar to one-another. "You think you know her?"

Kyra shook her head slowly, not entirely sure of how to respond to that. "I _feel_ like I should, Nax, but it's just that…" she trailed, slightly annoyed by her inability to place just exactly what it was about the painting that had captivated her. "…well, she doesn't look like someone I'd associate with, you know? She's too royal looking, and I don't take too well to royalty. Too snobby and uptight."

Nax nodded in understanding, throwing his hand around Kyra's shoulder. "Yeah, I get you." he agreed, pulling her closer to him. "Come on, let's get the bounty claimed on Rest, turn the data over to the Empire, and hope this all blows over." he said in a slightly reassuring tone, catching Kyra's glance back at the cargo lift. "They'll be fine. Come on."

Kyra followed Nax back to the cockpit, albeit reluctantly.

* * *

As it turned out, the bounty office hadn't been closed like Nax had expected. A few short inquiries on the holonet revealed that one of the local offices on 1313, not far from the apartment, had remained open. Unfortunately, the office was located basically in the middle of one of the larger field hospitals that the Empire had set up to try and contain Mau-Sanir. Specifically, the one where the Imperial effort was being coordinated for 1313, which had been put into a large park.

As Kyra and Nax passed through the impromptu camp, Stormtroopers and Underworld cops alike were both giving them wary looks – the only reason they were even allowed on site was due to Nax's bounty hunter license that Gaffi had issued him back on Tatooine, otherwise they would've been thrown out by the guards.

As the two of them carted Rest's frozen body through the camp, they happened upon scenes that struck deep. Young children, very few older than about five years or so, were being escorted away from their infected parents by doctors clothed in hazmat suits, screaming and crying, not understanding what was going on. Doctors were desperately trying to detach cybernetics from patients having seizures and bleeding everywhere, to little effect, and even a few hive gangers holding a silent vigil for a fallen member – there was so much death and chaos everywhere, it was like something out of a war holo.

Obviously uncomfortable, the two sped up and headed to the bounty office, heading through a checkpoint where they were quickly sprayed down with disinfectant chemicals. Being let through to the bounty office, they came face to face with an obviously tense junior officer wearing a respirator, just barely out of his teens, but he looked like he'd aged to his thirties from stress alone. "Name?" the officer requested.

"Nax Strag."

The officer sat forward and produced a datapad. "You got a puck, or are you just here to waste time?" he asked, and Nax produced Rest's puck, handing it over to the officer who quickly turned it on. "Hot damn!" he remarked in shock, staring at the puck's hologram before quickly correcting himself. "I find that hard to believe. Show me the goods."

Nax and Kyra stepped back towards the slab of carbonite and set it upright to let the officer look at Rest's face. Stepping back, the officer reached under his desk and produced a handheld scanner, before turning it on and running it over the slab. The scanner quickly gave three rapid beeps, and the officer stood back, surprised. "Stars alive, it _is_ Rest!" he exclaimed, before glancing at Nax. "Where'd you find him? The Empire's been looking for him for years, and he just shows up in carbonite!"

Nax crossed his arms. "Let's just say that he was a little too close to home, and leave it at that." he offered as his only response, slightly annoying the officer.

The officer sighed and pulled out a flat datapad with a plastoid stylus attached. "Fine, then. I just need your signature here, here, and here." he said, pointing at several blank spaces in the text on the device. "Once you've signed, I can start the payment process, and you'll see the credits in your account within a week or so."

Nax looked over the agreement three times, making sure there wasn't anything suspicious about it that would screw him over down the line. Satisfied with the agreement, Nax signed, and they were out shortly afterwards. "So, now all we've gotta do is turn this in…" Nax trailed, patting the pocket that held the datacard with Rest's research on it. There was an approaching Underworld cop patrolling the area. "Hey!" Nax called out. "Who's in charge here?"

The cop looked around and pointed to himself, not sure if it was he that Nax was speaking to. A simple nod sufficed for an answer. "Our boss, or the medical officer?" the officer questioned.

"Medical!" Nax responded.

The officer turned around and pointed towards a hill with a large tent at the top, overlooking most of the park. "She's in there, but she's busy as hell, so if it's not important, don't bother her." he advised.

"Thank you!" Kyra said graciously, before she tugged at Nax's arm to get him moving.

As the two of them headed towards the doctor, the pair found even more horrifying sights than when they were carting Rest around. Hoversleds were moving about the camp slaved to utility droids, their cargo an innumerable amount of bodies and detached cybernetics, blood dripping in varying shades to create an ugly brown sludge. The further into the camp they went, the greater the stench of death grew, and Kyra could barely stomach it. "…It's only been a day or so, how is Mau-Sanir already this bad?" she quietly asked.

Nax looked down at her and put his hand on her shoulder as some form of assurance. "I don't know." he whispered back, looking around at the entropic scenes playing out before them. "Maybe this is the intended effect? Short burn, high damage?"

"Maybe?" Kyra said, her tone uneasy as they approached the doctor's tent. There was another utility droid, and without any warning, it sprayed them both with a disinfectant, before moving aside to let them through.

Lifting the flaps out, they found the medical officer's tent to be a rather large mess. There were stacks upon stacks of datapads lining the tables at the edge of the tent, a small pile of discarded testing equipment, various culture dishes, and rows of empty or sealed beakers and vials. The center desk was occupied by an overworked and stressed out woman, with no less than seven empty caf mugs occupying most of the desk space that wasn't already being used by her terminal. Her short, midnight black hair had been haphazardly maintained, and her dull amber eyes were darting all over the terminal screen. She wore a tag that identified her as Mizala Sonde. She was so preoccupied with her work that it took her almost a full minute before she caught sight of Nax and Kyra. "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" she asked, speaking incredibly fast for someone as tired as she should be.

"Bounty hunters." Nax replied, and Mizala scowled.

"…Are you shitting me?" Mizala angrily said. "You come into _my_ tent when I'm overworked as it is, and you decide to waste my time with bounties?!" she shouted, before standing up and pointing to the tent flaps. "Get the hell out and go talk to the shithead in the office!"

Kyra stepped forward. "That's not why we're here, ma'am." she intervened, before looking up at Nax. "Hand it here." Kyra requested, and Nax produced the datacard. Kyra took it and showed it to Mizala. "This datacard has everything you need to know about this disease." she said, which sounded rather ominous to Mizala. Kyra walked up to Mizala's desk and set it on the desk.

Mizala's scorn had been replaced with mild curiosity, and she put gloves on before taking the datacard into her own hands. Slowly, she inserted it into the slot on her terminal, and the screen began to light up with Rest's research notes. Her eyes widened as she took everything in. "…What… is this?" she questioned.

"Research notes, from the man that created the disease." Nax answered, causing Mizala to stare at him.

"…I see – I'd suspected as much that it was manufactured. Do you know who made it?" Mizala questioned, rapidly tapping her finger against a mug.

"Amhe Rest." Nax replied simply.

Mizala's jaw dropped. "You're lying." she denied as she continued to look over the research notes.

Nax shrugged. "Believe it, don't believe it, whatever. Doesn't matter to me." he said casually looking over at the mess on her desk. "Point is, those _are_ his research notes. There should be a writeup for an antidote and the virus."

Mizala focused entirely on her terminal, rapidly flicking from folder to folder at what may as well have been the speed of light. Eventually, she came across the files for Mau-Sanir, and she stood up, only paying attention halfway. "…I have no idea how to…" she started, before looking up to see the tent flap gently swaying, and the pair nowhere to be found. "…thank you." Mizala mumbled, before sitting back down and getting to work.

Nax and Kyra, meanwhile, were already on their way out, trying to ignore everything happening around them. It was too much to bear, and was enough to make Nax regret giving the antidote to the Ascendancy, rather than the Empire. He had hope that the doctor would be able to reproduce the antidote, otherwise, everything would be resting on the shoulders of the Ascendancy, and that wasn't exactly preferable.

As they passed through a decontamination shower, they heard a man yelling outside the camp. "Ludd has deemed you all to be unclean! Prepare to bask in eternal fire!" he shouted. As the pair exited onto the street, they were immediately knocked back into the camp by a powerful explosion.  
In their daze, the two of them could hear the screams of civilians, both those that were locked in their apartments, and those inside the camp. Plastoid boots thundered past where they laid, but didn't try and pick them up.

Nax slowly sat up, his ears ringing and head spinning, and he turned to find Kyra, slouched against one of the decontamination sprayers. Crawling over to her, Nax helped her to her feet, leaning on each other for support. As they turned back to face the street, they saw that a lot of the front tent had been incinerated in the explosion, and the entire entrance checkpoint had been turned to scrap and rubble, the only sign that it had any prior usage being the burned underworld cops getting picked out of the wreckage by Stormtroopers.

A small piece of cloth blew in from outside the decontamination tent, and Nax caught it, unfolding it revealed it to be a burned Pather patch.

This was not going to blow over like he had hoped.

* * *

 **Two chapters in one month (almost), that's the power of making up for lost time, baby!**

' **Till next time!**

 **-Tweak**


	19. Path's End

**I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates. Life has been super fucking busy for me, what with me graduating recently and also working on getting my driver's license.**

 **Anyways, Brigador is cool. It's actually given me a lot of inspiration for one of the later arcs.**

 **Read and review.**

* * *

Nax kept flicking through the Pather database with Sidewinder's assistance, trying to produce _something_ of value that they could use to end the Path. Kyra and Lexi were also in the cockpit with him, but the two of them were listening to INN while Nax worked. " _…In other news, there has been a recent spike in terrorist attacks against hospitals, government buildings, and other essential infrastructure, with the most frequent targets being hospitals overloaded with patients suffering from CRV-02._ " Fay said, her voice crackling against the datapad's shoddy connection. " _At the moment, these attacks are mostly limited to suicide bombings and skirmishes with law enforcement. Bodies of these attackers have been recovered, and they appear to all carry iconography similar to the Path of Ludd. Officials are still investigating, but If anyone has further information, please call-"_ Fay extrapolated, before Lexi switched the datapad to some music to take their minds off of the situation.

Lexi turned to stare out the cockpit window. Out of the group, she was far and away the most upset, and none of them could really blame her. To her, it seemed like everything bad in her life had happened because of Pathers. Both parents killed, Pathers let a virus loose, and now the lower levels were basically under siege from the myriad Pather cells that had hidden right under the Empire's nose.

Kyra stopped nursing the bruises on her arm and turned her attention to Lexi, nudging her gently. "You alright?" she asked, concerned for her friend. Nax said nothing, but had begun to halfway pay attention to them.

Lexi had her head half-buried in her arms, and she turned her head to look at Kyra, barely trying to stay awake. "You tell me, Ky – do I _look_ fine?" she snapped bitterly. Kyra had already expected that sort of response, and opted to hug her friend. "I-" Lexi stammered, catching herself. "Sorry for snapping like that, it's just that these things keep happening, and it just… takes a toll, you know?"

Kyra nodded in understanding. "I know what you mean, Lex." she replied, before looking out the window with her. "What you're feeling now is just about what I felt like on Tatooine. It's like you said – things kept piling up for me until I reached a breaking point." Kyra continued, before pausing for a second. "We've got less broken bones now, though." she remarked sarcastically. Lexi slowly straightened herself out, chuckling at the joke, before resting her head in her palm. "Want to play another round of Battlegrounds?"

Lexi pursed her lips before sighing. "…Sure, why not?" she said, sounding drier than she probably intended, before getting up and heading to the crew lounge, with Kyra quickly following her in tow.

Nax waved after the two of them. "Sidewinder and I'll be in here if you need us!"

The two girls sat down at the holotable, and Kyra slid the datacard for Galactic Battlegrounds in, setting a duel game up and letting the game generate a scenario and battlemap for them to play. While they waited on the game to generated, Lexi shifted her gaze from the table up to Kyra. "Hey, Ky?" she asked, and Kyra hummed a response that signalled for her to continue speaking. "I know you told me back on the _Bantha_ that you didn't remember who you were, but is there any chance you've maybe remembered something since?"

Kyra paused once the game had finished generating a scenario, which had turned out to be the Empire versus Holdouts. "…There's that painting of that woman with the white hair in the hold. She looks familiar to me, somehow, but I can't pin _why_." Kyra answered, before tapping her chin thoughtfully. "…That, and I've been having these… dreams, I guess."

"Dreams?" Lexi pressed as they heard the faint sound of rain pattering against the ship's hull. "What kind of dreams?" she continued, before selecting the Separatist holdouts.

Kyra rested her arms against the table. "A few recurring ones." she said, before closing her eyes and trying to think of a way to put them into words. "…There's one where I'm climbing a mountain range with a few others. No faces, just… shadows. It's cold and snowing, and we're all in heavy clothing. When dawn breaks, I turn to face the rising sun, and I see the outline of a palace, or castle, or something. Someone comes up behind me and touches my shoulder, and I turn back. The dream ends before I can see who it is." Kyra revealed, before selecting the Empire for play.

Lexi twirled a strand of her hair around her finger. "A palace, huh?" she repeated, tapping the side of her head. The game revealed the map to be a jungle. "Sithspit." Lexi cursed at the game as the two of them selected their bases. Kyra set hers up in a large village of sympathetic locals, while Lexi built hers in a crashed Lucrehulk, and the match began.

Kyra had been sluggish with deploying her troops and buildings, clearly more focused on talking about the dreams than actually playing. "There's another dream where I'm on a balcony, looking over a multi-tiered city in a valley. The place is gorgeous – no skyscrapers or air traffic to ruin the view, just glittering lights along the streets, and a long, winding river that runs from near the building I'm in, all the way down and out of the city. In the middle tier, the river pans out into a large pond with a massive tree at the center, its leaves fading between luminescent reds, pinks, and blues." Kyra detailed meticulously while setting up defenses around her base, and Lexi by this point had been completely infatuated with what she was describing.

"…But even though I should be amazed, I'm not. I feel like I've seen that sight hundreds, maybe even thousands of times before. If anything, I feel like I'm alone, and I'm angry at someone close to me. Someone else comes up to me and leans on the balcony railing with me, and we start talking." she went on, practically rambling at this point. By now, Lexi had already secured her half of the map, while Kyra was only just getting her scout units made. "It's mostly inaudible to me, but I know she's a friend. Someone I could trust. The dream ends when she leaves." Kyra finished off.

Lexi clasped her her hands together. "You know, Ky, that was pretty flowery of you. You sure you didn't do opera before?"

Kyra had a pensive look about her. "Pretty sure." she responded. "There's another dream, but…" Kyra said hesitantly, before deciding to focus on the game. An easy roll for Lexi wouldn't be much fun for either of them. The game went on and on, both sides taking significant attrition from the landscape. Kyra's troops and commanders came down with cases of Red Haze, Xiu's Disease, and Malablood, while Lexi's had their joints rust and fall apart, which meant Kyra had enough of an opportunity to gain some ground despite the disadvantage. Firing a salvo of defoliator shells at Lexi's lines to burn her cover away. Then, and only then, did she bunker her forces down along a river embankment that divided the map. "Your move." Kyra taunted playfully.

Lexi examined the holographic battlefield, significantly annoyed. "What the hell is this bantha shit?" she cursed, pouring over her admittedly limited arsenal for a solution to her seemingly unsolvable problem. Her standard battle droids suffered attrition too quickly to be effective when coming to the front, and she could field only so many specialty droids. "Seriously, what the shit? That's cheating!" she accused.

"You gonna throw in the towel?" Kyra suggested, further sparking Lexi's competitive fervor.

"Like hell I will!" Lexi replied, before returning to her arsenal. She had a very brief epiphany, and moved her vehicle and infantry production buildings up to a control point practically right on top of her own lines, before pumping out fresh waves of droids and vehicles, mostly AATs and supported by a few defoliators. Before Kyra could comment on what her line could see, the defoliators fired, blowing a massive hole in the center of her lines. Kyra quickly scrambled to fill the gaps, but freshly built B2 rocket droids had crossed the river and gotten into her trench line, making short work of her Stormtroopers. The rest of Lexi's army quickly followed through the gap, and her lines easily collapsed from the sheer number of droids.

"Well played." Kyra congratulated, before immediately surrendering, her base's hologram exploding in a shower of fire and debris from a self-inflicted orbital strike.

Lexi was confused. "Huh? Why'd you surrender?"

"Because you had already won the game. There's not much I can do about defoliators without bombers, you know." Kyra explained as the game went into sleep mode, waiting for further inputs. "No point in fighting an already lost battle."

Lexi seemed to take that to heart, before cracking her fingers. "So, about those other dreams – want to tell me about them before we move to round two?"

Kyra nodded and got into a more comfortable position. "…Right, so, third dream." she said, preparing herself for any adverse reactions she might have to retelling this one. "I always start out in a beautiful garden in the early morning. There are side pathways forming a square around the garden, and the central area is large enough to hold a small crowd. I'm walking through towards an entrance gate, with a presence similar to the friend from the other dream. The gates swing in towards the garden, and several shadow people come through it." she spoke slowly and deliberately, Lexi hanging off her every last word. "One figure is an overweight man who I swear I've met before, another is a man who had a build like Nax, but he seemed more… I don't know, I guess 'professional' would be the word for it." Kyra continued, tapping her finger against the inactive table, sparking minor holograms in reaction.

"The third is a woman, and I feel some kind of animosity towards her, but that's not important – what _is_ important is the second guy. Every time I have this dream, whenever I see him, I always get chills." Kyra continued to reveal, and Lexi's expression had now taken a far more curious look. "There's just something _wrong_ about him."

"Wrong in what way?" Lexi pressed out of curiosity.

Kyra snapped her fingers trying to bring the details to the forefront of her mind. "Wrong with him as in he's done something horrible, but he's hiding it behind a polite façade." she tried, feeling as if she had failed to adequately describe him. "It's like there's a manipulative evil brewing inside of him. He takes my hand and kisses it as the woman introduces us, but I can't make heads or tails of what she's saying." Kyra continued, gradually getting more and more disgusted with herself. "I feel like I want to cut my entire arm off and burn it to the bone _just_ to get his touch off of me."

Lexi tapped the side of her face in thought. "That's… odd." she remarked, pursing her lips. "Maybe once we're done crushing the Path, we can look into those dreams of yours."

Kyra brushed her bangs out of her face and cocked her head to the side. "Nax was already planning on helping me look into who I was, actually." she revealed, before straightening up. "Anyways, round two?"

"You're on!"

* * *

Nax stared at the terminal with tired, almost dead eyes. He'd poured over every single Pather cell they had info on, and yet found nothing that could give a clue as to where exactly the Path's leaders were operating from. Going from cell to cell would be a tremendous waste of time and resources, and would alert the Path's leaders that they were being hunted down.

Burying his head in his hands out of frustration, Nax let out an annoyed groan. Sidewinder twittered a question at him. "I know we're getting nowhere, Sidewinder, just… run the sweep again." he ordered, and Sidewinder chirped once, initiating the system sweep. After a few short minutes, Sidewinder chirped a negative, and Nax hit his head against the console in anger.

Lexi had apparently heard Nax's frustration and came into the cockpit. "You're still up?" she said in shock, heading over to his side. "You find anything useful?"

Nax let out a frustrated groan. "No." he answered, falling back in the chair and looking up at Lexi, letting her get a good look at just how dead he looked. "There's nothing on what we stole from the Path that even _hints_ at a place the leaders could be hiding."

Lexi bent over and looked at the terminal's readout of Pather files. "Nothing?" she pushed.

"None that I could see." he said. Lexi tapped her finger against the console impatiently, before stepping back and pulling out her datapad, connecting it to the terminal. "What're you doing?"

"Running one of my own programs that'll go through the files and find anything hidden." Lexi answered curtly, before throwing her hands on Nax's shoulders. "It'll take a while to find anything. Probably a day or so, so that means your ass needs to get some rest." she chided. Nax didn't complain at all, and instead got up and headed straight to the crew quarters, his walk looking more like a shamble. Lexi followed him, making sure to catch him pre-emptively whenever it looked like he was about to fall over. As soon as he was in the crew quarters, he threw his duster and shirt off and practically dived under his bunk's covers, already asleep before his head hit the pillow.

Yawning, Lexi was briefly tempted by the prospect of slipping into something more comfortable and jumping into bed with Nax, but she decided against it and headed to the crew lounge. Grabbing some soda out of the conservator, she hopped into the lounge seat and set the table to play whatever it could find off the holonet.

Lexi popped the tab on the can and began to drink, taking the alone time as a chance to ruminate on things. Specifically, Nax – there was just something about the way he treated both her and Kyra. Any normal person his age would've seen the signs the both of them had been giving and would've pounced at the chance. Instead, Nax seemed to be single-minded about whatever job was at hand, and wasn't too terribly interested in a relationship outside of platonic ones.

There was a faint metal waddling coming from down the corridor, and soon after, Zeethree entered the crew lounge. "Ah, good evening, Master Sapphyra." he greeted in the jovial tone typical of his line. "I trust you are doing well?"

Lexi nodded in response, sipping from her can. "Could be a helluva lot better, Zeethree." she said, before sitting forward. "I wanted to ask you something about Nax, actually." she offered up, catching Zeethree's full attention.

"Certainly!" Zeethree said, curtly bowing his torso to Lexi. "What did you want to know about Master Strag, Master Sapphyra?"

Lexi pursed her lips to briefly think of a first question for the droid. "Why does he act the way he does?" she questioned.

Zeethree cocked his head to the side, and if his face could move, he'd have one hell of a confused look, but dimming his photoreceptors would have to suffice. "I'm afraid you'll need to elaborate, Master Sapphyra."

Lexi clicked her tongue a few times, trying to grasp for a way to put it to words. "I'm talking about the way he treats Kyra and I." she explained, and Zeethree tilted his head back in a kind of 'ah-hah' way. "He's overly protective of the both of us – I could have just as easily patched my wound from Rest's droid myself, but he insists on doing it for me. Same thing with Kyra, even Kelah and Nevda, two people he's barely known."

Zeethree waddled over and sat down opposite of Lexi, and she shut down the holonet feed to focus on the conversation. "Ah, that." Zeethree said in a flat tone, his receptors briefly dimming. "Master Sapphyra, if I may ask – don't you think it would be better to ask Master Strag about this, rather than going through me?"

The corners of Lexi's mouth twitched in brief thought. "Nax hasn't told me anything about this., Zeethree." she answered, cracking her fingers.

"He has told me nothing of this either, although I have my suspicions as to _why_ he acts this way." Zeethree replied, before getting up and preparing to leave the lounge. "It is not my place to say what is or is not going through Master Strag's head, Master Sapphyra. Good night." Zeethree finished, before leaving Lexi to herself.

Having decided that she was actually going to go to sleep now, Lexi got up and headed for the cockpit and launched herself into the chair Nax had been sitting in earlier. After triple checking her gear to make sure the gear would run overnight, Lexi closed her eyes and quickly drifted into a blissful, dreamless sleep.

When she came to in the morning, she found a freshly brewed mug of caf on the terminal, and her code was about ninety-seven percent done. "…Shit, you're a light sleeper, huh?" she heard Nax say, even with her mind as fogged as it was. "Morning."

Lexi stretched and rubbed her eyes, before she turned the chair to face Nax. "…Morning, Nax." she greeted back, before yawning. "…Where's Kyra?"

"Making breakfast. She's been nagging me about letting her do it, and I couldn't be assed to make breakfast – too tired." he answered, and Lexi gently pushed Nax in a joking manner.

"…And _that's_ what you get for last night!" Lexi teased, poking him.

"You're one to talk, Lexi!" Nax retorted, amused with her antics for once. Once the two of them were done pushing each other's buttons, Lexi's expression faded, and Nax noticed right away. "Something bothering you?" he questioned, and Lexi nodded once, motioning for him to sit down, to which he obliged. "Spill it, Lex. What's going on?"

Lexi remained silent for an uncomfortably long time. "…Why do you treat Kyra and I the way you do?" she eventually blurted, only serving to encourage Nax's confusion. She easily picked up on this and turned to face him fully. "I mean how you're so overprotective of us both. You _insist_ on taking care of wounds we could easily handle ourselves, every time we go somewhere potentially dangerous, you make it a point to be the one leading us around, and so on, and yet when we hit on you, you just take it and move on." she trailed briefly, trying to figure out how to put her thoughts to words. "You protect us like your life depends on it, but you're intentionally staying distant from us. Why?" she finally managed to get out.

Nax's expression hardened. "…Lexi, the three of us are bounty hunters. We don't exactly have great life expectancies." he said as he clasped his hands together. "I could get closer with the both of you, take on a job, and next thing I know, I'm alone again. It's better for us to just stay friends and partners than get any closer."

Lexi furrowed her brow. "Nax, I know there's something you aren't telling me, but I want to ask you this – don't you think you would be happier if you weren't so… detached?" she questioned. Nax shifted in his chair slightly, but otherwise didn't respond. Even though he didn't speak, Lexi interpreted his body language as some kind of mixed answer. "…I see." was all she said, before getting up and leaving the cockpit, looking hurt.

* * *

The Arch-Canon and Reika observed the barely functional equipment in their new command center. "Well, it's no Scarif, but it'll do." the Arch-Canon mused as he brushed his fingers along a dead monitor.

Reika, however, was not impressed in the slightest. " _This_ is where we'll be coordinating the Uprising?" she questioned as she picked up a cracked datapad and dropped it back on the table where she found it. "I could just as easily get us an asteroid base in the outer reaches of the system, or get us an abandoned garrison, or-" she rambled, until the Arch-Canon shushed her.

"This will do just fine, Reika. Bring the others in so we can get to work." the Arch-Canon ordered.

Reika bowed her head. "Of course, Arch-Canon." she said, before heading back out the door to fetch the Arch-Canon's most loyal followers.

Now that he had been given a brief amount of privacy, the Arch-Canon reached into his robe until he found a very familiar weapon, no larger than a glowrod, similar in shape to one, too. It had a chromium finish with a ribbed grip that, while technically being a plastoid compound, felt like softened bantha hide. The Arch-Canon flicked the red switch on the side up, letting the white-orange blade come from the top of the weapon, accompanied by the usual snap-hiss. The energy blade crackled and hissed as power coursed through the hilt, bathing the room in its tinted glow.

The Arch-Canon cracked a sickening smile as he pulled his hood and mask down, revealing a nearly ruined face, marked with scars and burns everywhere, the only semblance of humanity being his eyes, which were bloodshot, making his sickly yellow-red pupils stand out as even more menacing than they would without the damage. "…Do you see, Master?" he murmured, closing his eyes and reaching out. "Our dream is becoming a reality – soon, all those who took our Order from us will pay – them and their damnable monstrosities."

The Arch-Canon felt something reaching out to the back of his mind. Something familiar, but also something he had learned to detest, and he mentally pushed the feeling away, snuffing it out like one would a candle's flame.

He felt Reika's presence approach the door, and quickly shut the lightsaber off, storing it in his robe and throwing his hood and mask back on right as she came back in. "The others await your bidding, Arch-Canon." Reika stated humbly, bowing before him.

Tapping his fingers against his arm in a wavelike motion, the Arch-Canon huffed in an approving manner. "Very good, Reika." he said, gesturing to the derelict equipment in the room. "Have them set up the communications equipment in here before anything else."

Reika bowed her head once again. "Of course, Arch-Canon." she accepted, turning back and pausing in the doorway, as if a question had crossed her mind, but she let it go.

Within the hour, the comm specialists and technicians had done a very basic job of restoring the old equipment to a functional state, which, while insufficient for the Arch-Canon's long-term plans, sufficed for his immediate usage. The Arch-Canon approached one of the active stations and ordered the comm specialist to prepare a message for dissemination amongst the cells, an order he complied with at a remarkable pace before clearing himself from the station for the Arch-Canon to record his message. He took a deep breath, and prepared himself. "…Followers of the Path, hear my word!" he declared in a grandiose fashion. "The Uprising is upon us, and with it, the fall of the butchers in the Synthskin Union will soon be at hand! For too long, them and their ilk have led ruin to our lives and families – our youngest may not remember the devastation wrought by the Clone Wars, but many of us do – we've lost friends, family, even lovers to the technological decadence and corporate greed of the Confederacy, and the Synthskin devil have taken in many of those same Confederates." the Arch-Canon continued, giving particular pause at the mention of lost lovers, before moving on with his speech. "Even now, our virus sows ruin and dissent amongst the ranks of the Synthskin devil, their numbers whittling with each new case as divine punishment for their degradation and butchery of the natural form. Soon, the entire planet will be trembling before our feet, and with it, the Synthskin demons will be no more, and then the Empire will bow to _our_ demands!" the Arch-Canon finished, mustering every bit of pride and zealous fervor from within, before stepping back and letting the comm specialist prepare his speech for dispersal.

Subconsciously, the Arch-Canon patted his lightsaber, thinking fondly of what he would do with it. Vader and the Emperor both would surely fall to his hand, and he planned to savor every last second of their end. The silenced voices of the Order demanded it, and the Synthskins were just a stepping stone.

* * *

Against all odds, there _had_ been something hidden on what they had stolen from the Path – the location of a disbanded cell's base located on level 867, dating back to ten years ago. The base itself had been marked as condemned by some forgotten Pather leader, but the sheer fact that it was hidden on the files in the first place served as reason enough for them to investigate. Maybe it had some sort of clue towards where the Pather leaders were. Hell, maybe it _was_ where they were.

Nax, Kyra, and Lexi disembarked from the ship with Sidewinder and Knockout trailing them, the latter wearing the Magnaguard's torn cape as a battle trophy. Anything lower than level 1000 was effectively out of Imperial jurisdiction, and mutations began to crop up at exponential levels the further down one went, so much so that they the three of them had come out of the ship fully geared – Nax and Kyra in their Mandalorian armor, the latter's helmet adorned with another tally mark for bringing in Rest, while Lexi had partial plastoid armor on, in addition to a full-face respirator, her reasoning being that it was best not to risk catching an underworld disease.

The group warily walked to the nearest magtrain station, passing by a few weary onlookers who looked like hell, and were paying just as much as attention to the foreigners who dared intrude upon their turf, utterly undeterred by the death glares Nax and Kyra were giving off with their helmets, or Knockout's imposing stature and outline in the dim neon lighting.

They descended the stairwell into the station, vaulting over the turnstiles and past a decayed checkpoint with the glass broken in. The further they went, the darker it got, the lights barely getting any power from the local energy grid. The instant Nax clicked his helmet-mounted glowrod on, there was a huge spark that came down from one of the lights further ahead, and the whole station finally went dark.

Lexi traced her fingers along a piece of graffiti that read _NO REST 4 THA WIKID_. "Sheesh, conduit worms did a hell of a number on this place." she remarked, earning puzzled looks from Nax and Kyra. "Conduit worms, you know, little bastard pests that'll wreck a freighter worse than a pack of Mynocks? Hello?"

"Never heard of 'em." Kyra said, fingering her blaster's trigger in anticipation.

Lexi shrugged in response. "…Eh, doesn't surprise me. You don't really see many of them off-world anymore." she replied. Just then, there was the sound of what may have been a decent sized chunk of metal being dragged across decrepit tiling. Sidewinder flew into the darkness ahead and turned his light on, shining it onto a single metallic tendril that seemed to be moving on its own in a snakelike manner. Tiny little capacitors and batteries branched off of the tendril, being dragged along the ground lazily. The 'head', if you could even call it that, consisted of a scomp link plug with a set of headphones for 'eyes', its vision constantly trailing Sidewinder as he circled it. "That," Lexi pointed. "is a conduit worm." she finished, before flicking the safety off on Thel's blaster and giving the creature a nice burst of hot plasma. " _Was_ a conduit worm." she snarkily corrected.

Nax's first reaction was to walk over to the dead worm and pick it up, even as it leaked oil and other, probably corrosive liquids. "You called this a conduit worm?" Nax asked, glancing over his shoulder at Lexi, and then returning his attention to the worm once she nodded. "Back on Tatooine, we called them cablebugs. Didn't know there was any other name for them." he commented, before throwing the worm aside and moving further into the station.

They all came out to the main platform very soon after, the two tunnels for the magtrains already being occupied by long decommissioned magtrains, their repulsorlifts having given up years ago. Curiously enough, the magtrain on the right seemed like someone had been using it as a passageway recently – there was a door ripped from the train and set over the gap between the passenger car and the platform. "…That's weird. Looks like someone's been here recently." Kyra commented, poking at the door with her foot.

"You think it was Pathers?" Nax asked.

Before Kyra could respond, Sidewinder twittered aggressively, shining his light at the dented frame of the magtrain door. "Oh, for the love of-" Lexi swore, rubbing the unevenly shaped metal. "It's not Pathers. It's an ogre." she continued, poking her head inside the train and finding the seating ripped up and torn, like an animal was chewing on it. "It's _definitely_ an ogre. Knockout, you've got point!"

Kyra and Nax exchanged glances. "Ogre?" Kyra echoed.

"Coruscanti Ogres. You take a biped the size of a Devaronian, and make it look like a hairy Eopie nugget." Lexi elaborated, stepping inside the train fully and half-looking over her shoulder at the others. "Mean, ugly bastards that'll tear you apart just as soon as look at you, then eat whatever's left. Hate 'em."

Nax followed Sidewinder into the train, and initially they planned to head down the left tunnel, but that had been bricked off by the Empire – or the Republic – years ago, so that only left the tunnel on the right. "You've seen these things before?" he questioned as they moved through the car.

They all dropped out of the rear car with Knockout making a rather loud stomp that shook the dust off the tunnel ceiling. "Yeah, I've seen them. A few've gotten up to 1313 and ripped some Stormtrooper squads apart, took like three hazard troopers to down them each time. They're tough bastards," she said to Nax, before tapping on Knockout's plating. "But with him? We're gonna be fine."

Knockout locked up straight. "Analyzing tactical information on ' _Coruscanti Ogres_.'" he boomed, his mechanical voice echoing down the tunnel seemingly forever. "Threat level moderate. Recommended tactic if encountered; volume of fire."

Lexi grinned and tapped his plating again. "See? We're gonna be fine if we find the ogre."

Knockout apparently detected Nax's doubts and turned to face him. "Master Strag, please, _do_ have some faith in my abilities." he quipped to his Master, flashing his micro missile launcher and tri-shot as assurance.

Nax acquiesced to the droid, especially since he handily dispatched the Magnaguard earlier. They proceeded down the tunnel, constantly on alert for the slightest disturbance. The hour seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, before they found themselves in an area of the tunnel that had teenage and gang graffiti replaced by esoteric symbolism and religious iconography of the Pather variety. The tunnels also showed intermittent signs of Ogre presence, and they never once let up their guard.

By now, they were practically on top of the old Pather cell, yet they couldn't find the entrance. The maintenance corridors in the tunnel were all welded up and blocked off, so that was the easy way ruled out. Their search would have been fruitless had Nax not heard a peculiar sound – a very faint series of a woman's sobs and sniffles. They weren't coming from within the tunnel, there wasn't an echo. Instead, the noise seemed to be coming from inside the walls on the right. Pulling the group to a stop, Nax paced along the wall, trying to find the point where the noise was at its loudest, running his fingers along the durasteel walls to find any signs of tampering. Very quickly, he heard the sound of his gloves running against metal disappear entirely. A few taps confirmed that the wall had been replaced with some sort of plastoid compound that was barely noticeable in terms of how it looked compared to the surroundings. "Found the entrance." Nax blurted out as he tested the integrity of the plastoid by pushing against it. The compound must have either decayed severely, or it was flimsy to begin with, because even the slightest applied pressure would cause the plastoid to bend.

The others looked over at him in bewilderment. "Nax, that's a wall. There's been nothing _but_ walls this whole trip." she stated, crossing her arms in annoyance. Nax backed up and lowered himself, very obviously planning to run into the wall. "Don't you fu-" Lexi started, stopping herself the second Nax barreled through the weak wall.

They could just barely make out Nax giving a cheeky thumbs up in the large cloud of dust. "I'm fine!" he shouted, picking himself up and dusting himself off as the girls came to check on him. "Kyra, I just said I'm fine." Nax complained as Kyra religiously checked him for bleeding.

Just for good measure, Kyra whacked him on the helmet. "You keep charging into things, you're liable to break something." she chastised in annoyance before flicking him on the helmet. "And I don't do bits and pieces."

Nax laughed it off, before they all focused on the now opened tunnel. The woman had mysteriously stopped crying, probably out of shock from the sound of the wall being busted open. "Hello?" Nax called out, receiving no response. Out of caution, he drew his scattergun while Knockout took the lead. The esoteric symbols on the tunnel walls were even more intense than outside, growing stranger and stranger the further they went.

At the end of the tunnel was what seemed to be an abandoned pumping station for this part of the level. Corroded and ruined pipes littered the station's floor, with water damage very much everywhere. There was a rank, disgusting smell in the room too that overpowered their filters, like a mix of moldy food and a decomposing corpse, causing the girls to gag before they could control themselves. Guard railings and turbines in the station were draped with waterlogged banners and tarps bearing the symbol of the Path. There were even a few weapon-shaped shadows floating around in the water below.

Directly across the station was a control room with a faint blue glow emanating from behind the glass. From what they could see, the room was relatively well preserved, so Knockout led them over. They didn't find any sign of the woman, and the station seemed to only have the one exit, which they had already come through, which begged the question of how exactly she got down here in the first place. A chill went down their spines. Something wasn't right, and they could all feel it.

The walkway creaked and moaned against their weight, but didn't give in, thankfully. The control room door was also, rather curiously, unlocked, and it slid open for them on its own. Entering the room, they found that the blue light was, in actuality, a terminal that had been left on for all these years. How the power was still on was unknown to them, but seated in front of it was a skeleton in torn Pather robes with a rather large hole in its skull, the source of the hole not far away from where the skeleton was resting. Knockout immediately scanned the skeleton, before grabbing the chair and throwing it at the wall, leaving Nax to see what was actually on the terminal. Trying to move the cursor around, Nax quickly realized it was actually locked up, so he rebooted the terminal.

Several minutes later, the terminal was back on and no longer locked up. The very first thing Nax decided to do was check the communications, and there, he found one very recent message, only a couple of hours old, among other, nearly decade old ones. Deciding on checking the second most recent one first, he opened it to find a rather disturbing note, most likely from the skeleton they had just desecrated. _"The Uprising has failed – a traitor within our ranks led the Synthskin devils and the Empire to many of our righteous places of retribution. I fear that ours has been compromised as well, so I have ordered the sole remaining entrance sealed with plastoid and made to mimic the surrounding walls. None will know we were here, and most of our men have already taken the ultimate sacrifice, and I, too, shall join them. Ludd preserve us all."_ the note read.

That seemed to satisfy Nax's curiosity, so he backed out of that message and went to the most recent one, finding a call for another Uprising, threatening not just the Synthskins, but also the Empire itself. He turned his head to Lexi. "Can you track where this message came from, Lex?" he questioned, and she knelt over to look at the terminal.

Lexi pulled out a thumb drive from her jacket and plugged it in, gently pushing Nax aside. "Give me about ten minutes." she requested, getting to work. Nax nodded and fell in next to Kyra, holding position near the door.

"Some cell." Kyra dryly remarked, giving unimpressed looks around the room. "Here I am thinking this place was gonna be some big gauntlet chock full of Pathers to blast, and it's just… empty."

Nax removed the magazine on the Deecee, before reinserting it, just to make sure it was secure. "I know, right? Talk about a letdown." he replied, leaning against the wall and sticking the weapon under his arm. "Whole place is locked away on the Pather databases, and it's just a flooded pile of bantha shit. Boring." Nax continued, before looking over at Lexi, working away on the terminal. "At least we have a lead on their leaders."

"That's one way of looking at it." Kyra responded, cracking her knuckles in anticipation. "…How the hell did we even get here, anyways?" she suddenly blurted out. "We go from tracking down a murderer to stopping a planet-wide insurrection. That's one hell of an escalation."

Nax shrugged. "When you put it like that, yeah, I suppose it is." he offered, looking over at her. His mind briefly flashed back to when they first met in Mos Eisley. It was honestly kind of hard for him to rationalize the fact that, just a few months ago, she was nothing more than a scared girl fearing for her life, and now she was his confident, gun-toting partner. She was so accustomed to fighting by now that the fact that she was complaining about the _lack_ of one had caught him off guard. It actually kind of worried him how her family might react if they were to reunite. _If_.

Kyra suddenly began to rub her arm, before looking back into the flooded room. "Is it just me, or did it just get really cold in here?" she questioned, shifting her gaze to Nax. Now that she mentioned it, it _did_ feel colder. Actually, it felt pretty damn close to freezing.

"Yeah, what the hell?" Nax commented, looking into the main room with Kyra. The water on the floor had all frozen up into ice, and the bodies seemed to have turned to statues. Out of caution, he raised his blaster and pointed it outside the door. The hairs on everyone's necks stood straight up at the sound of a woman's sobs, significantly closer now than before. Flashing their lights around the room, Nax and Kyra landed them both on a woman in a soaking wet white dress that draped down to her calves, her hair a stringy black and skin alabaster white. As if that wasn't enough to set alarm bells off in their heads, she seemed to be floating above the ice, and whenever her toes would touch the ice it'd tear a tiny bit of skin off and stick, leaving very small but very noticeable blood trails that didn't freeze with the rest of the water.

Nax half-lowered the blaster, but kept his finger near the trigger. "…Hello?" he eventually mustered. Seemingly in response, the woman's body twisted around the waist, a sickly crackling of bone and glass accompanying the inhuman act. They both pointed their weapons at the woman out of a mixture of paranoia and fear. "Who the hell-" he started, being cut off by the woman's back arching so that her face was fully exposed. Her eyes were a dull, bloodshot black, and her mouth was slacked.

The woman gasped and raised an open palm out towards the two of them, a black mist intermixed with what looked like small embers coming from her hand. Before either of them could shoot her, she disappeared in a puff of that same smoke. Taken aback, they decided to step back into the control room. "Lexi, how much longer?" Nax asked, still focused on the doorway. "…Lexi?" he asked after not receiving a response. He glanced over at the terminal and saw her on the floor, completely unconscious. Instantly forgetting his previous worries about the woman, Nax dashed to Lexi's side, only to seemingly be tripped and fall flat on his face, suddenly extremely drowsy and sickened to his stomach. The last thing he saw before blacking out was the woman walking towards an idling Knockout, leaving blood and water in her wake.

When the three of them came to, they were back at the station they started from. The drowsiness and stomach-churning, however, had not gone away. "…Son of a bitch." Lexi cursed as she sat up, leaning onto a pillar to prevent herself from falling back to the floor. "What happened? Why are we back at the station?"

Knockout marched into Lexi's field of view. "There was a leak of an unknown gas inside of the cell's base." he half-boomed to answer her question. "I carried all of you to a safe area, before completing the trace."

"A gas leak?" Nax echoed, nursing his left side. "Why didn't you tell us before it knocked us out?" he demanded to know.

"I suffered a total system crash shortly after we entered the room." Knockout offered as a reason. "When I managed to reboot, all of you were on the ground, unconscious. I made the immediate decision to evacuate you all to safety. Once I completed the trace, I carried all three of you back to this platform." he explained. "I have no idea how the gas got past your filters, but I apologize deeply for my near failure, Masters."

Lexi rubbed her arm and tried to stand up, barely holding herself together. "If you had a system crash, that means I need to pick at your brain later. Where's the thumb drive with the trace on it?"

"In your right pocket, Master Sapphyra."

Lexi dug her hand around in that pocket, and sure enough, pulled the thumb drive out. "Nice." was all she said, before returning it.

Kyra had, up until that point, been silent. "…So, no ghost girl?" she blurted, earning strange looks from Lexi and Knockout. Or at least, about as much of an expression that a three meter tall killing machine could give off.

"Master Kyra, I suspect that the gas had certain… hallucinogenic properties." Knockout tried to reason, finding the very concept of spirits illogical. "Please, do try to shrug off anything you think you may have seen."

Kyra took that advice to heart as they all moved to leave the station, but there was a niggling feeling in the back of her mind about the woman. Gas leak or not, whatever she felt back there sure seemed real.

* * *

As it turned out, pulling the data from the message was actually fairly easy. What _wasn't_ easy, however, was actually decrypting it, which Lexi and Sidewinder had made partial progress with, before shifting their focus to the matter of Knockout and his total system crash. Nax, Kyra, and Lexi were all seated in the lounge with Knockout by the table, offlined and hooked up to Lexi's gear for diagnostics. There wasn't really much going on, even when Arfive and Katy rolled in to join them. "Hey, Kyra," Lexi started, half-focused on her work with Knockout. "Have you told Nax about your dreams?" she said, momentarily forgetting that he was sitting right next to her.

"Dreams? What dreams?" Nax asked in response, and Lexi instantly realized her mistake, shooting Kyra a sheepish, apologetic look. "And about what?" he pressed.

Kyra sighed and rested her head in her hands. "I'm not really sure, Nax." she answered truthfully, tapping her fingers in a wave-like motion. "I think they're about who I was. Before Lostur, I mean."

"Tell me." Nax requested. Cracking her fingers and stretching, Kyra launched into a retelling of what Lexi had already heard, skipping most of the flowery prose and giving it to him straight. "…A multi-tiered city that has a big pond in the middle tier, with a huge tree that changes colors?" Nax said, wiping his mouth before pulling out his datapad to check something. "…That sounds… familiar, actually."

Kyra's eyes lit up in an instant. "Familiar? How?" she pressed, suddenly getting all excited at the prospect that _maybe_ Nax knew one of the locations of her dreams, assuming it wasn't made up in her mind.

Nax poked around on his datapad for a few seconds more, before tilting it back and looking at Kyra. "I've heard a couple drunk spacers talking about a city on Alderaan that fits your description pretty well. Just give me a second, and…" he trailed, before turning the datapad to Kyra. "Here, it's a city called Dawnglade."

Taking the datapad into her hands, Kyra flipped through the images of the city, eyes widening as she fitted the pieces together. Everything in the city appeared as it did in her dreams. "This is it." she said, taken completely aback by just how… simple it was that a piece of her past had just fallen into her lap. Kyra continued flicking through the images, before coming across one of a gorgeous looking palace at the highest tier. She turned the datapad to Nax and pointed at the palace. "This is where my dream takes place, the one where I'm looking over the city."

Nax took the device from her and tapped around, eventually getting to some public information about the palace. "Looks like the whole city is pretty much owned by House Moryne, one of Alderaan's Great Houses. They oversee it from that palace there." he read off, tapping the information about House Moryne itself. "Let's see… the House is overseen by Lukan and Beleza Moryne, who…" he continued to read, slowing down and stopping himself upon seeing Beleza's image. Instead of saying anything, he just enlarged the image and turned the device to Kyra, who stared at the image in shock.

Beleza and the painting in the hold of the woman with the white hair were the same person. In fact, Kyra felt that same uneasy connection of familiarity with Beleza, especially moreso now that she knew the woman's name. While it was a lead, it didn't exactly prove anything. She may have just known people in high places, but now they had a semi-tangible connection to Alderaan.

Lexi sat up straight and stretched. "Hey, I hate to break up what you guys are doing, but, uh, something's happened with Knockout." she revealed, causing the pair to look at her with wary eyes. "I'm looking through his brain right now, and I'm seeing a lot of inaccessible memory, but what's even weirder is this system log file I found." she explained, idly tapping on her equipment. "Seems like he was passively logging system events after the crash, because about three minutes after he crashed, there was a _huge_ chunk of his code that got changed."

Nax frowned, looking over at Lexi's readouts. "That doesn't sound good. Can it be rolled back, somehow?" he asked.

Lexi gave a half-shrug. "Probably, but from what I can tell the code changes are benign and don't really touch the directives I gave him the first time around." she continued, getting back to work. "I need to do a full check on everything, but for now, I say we keep Knockout powered down, just in case it's _not_ harmless."

"Agreed." Kyra said, having been snapped from her awe at her past life.

Nax conceded, running his hand through his hair. "I suppose that would be the smart option. I doubt my dad's gear could stop much from Knockout if he went haywire, anyways." he said, before crossing his arms and sitting back. Lexi unplugged her tools from Knockout, done with her examination and ready to focus entirely on decrypting what they had pulled from the cell. "How long will this take?"

Lexi bit her lip, perhaps out of doubt for her own abilities. "Probably a few hours at best, a day or two at worst." she responded, tapping away at her keys as Sidewinder twittered a question at her, one that she responded to with a nod.

"Anything we can do to speed that along?" Kyra asked.

"Not unless you want me bouncing off the walls." Lexi replied, half joking, half serious. Nax and Kyra took that as their cue to leave her to her work, both of them intending on heading to bed to catch up on some sleep.

* * *

A scant few hours later, and Lexi had decrypted the data they pulled. As it turned out, the source came from another warehouse on the opposite end of the planet, many levels deeper than even the abandoned cell base.

At the moment, the three of them, including Sidewinder, were posted on a building that had more or less total sight on the base. Compared to the Synthskin warehouse they broke into when they first came to Coruscant, this Pather base was _massive_. There had to have been hundreds of Pathers on the grounds. What could be assumed to be drill instructors were drilling the decent handful of guards through what was probably the morning routine in the center courtyard, a cadre of probable officers overlooking them.

Somewhere in that mynock's nest was their target. They could probably remove a decent chunk of the Path's leadership coordinating the cells planetwide, and the whole insurgency would collapse on itself.

Biting her lip as she looked over the threats, Kyra gave a passing glance at Nax. "You sure you don't want to leak this place to the Empire and let them handle it?" she asked, hoping Nax had changed his mind.

At first, he seemed to consider the suggestion, but shook his head, clearly turning it down. "We're too far down for the Empire to get here fast enough. We leak it, we let everything slip away – we'll probably never get another chance like this." he offered, continuing to analyze their area, when Sidewinder suddenly gave an alarmed chirp, quickly getting into something resembling cover. Very soon after, a LAAT came by, carrying a huge cargo container.

Just as quickly as it arrived, the ship dropped the container into the main yard and flew off. A small group of what were probably cargo technicians strolled up to the container and opened both ends, revealing the contents to be small power generators, probably meant to be distributed among cells, and that just might be their ticket for blowing the base. For now, though, they had to concentrate on their job of eliminating the Pather leadership, or whatever qualified for such.

"Anyone see a decent way in?" Kyra asked, hoping the others were seeing something she wasn't.

Lexi frowned, setting her macrobinoculars down. "I see exactly jack and squat." she regrettably confirmed. Sidewinder similarly gave a negative chirp, so either they had to find a way to do this quietly, or they turn the place into a warzone.

Nax sighed and looked more closely at the yard, suddenly getting an idea upon spotting the manholes that dotted the area. "What about maintenance access? I'm seeing access points all over this yard. Probably more in the actual building." he suggested.

Stroking her chin, Lexi scanned for signs of the manholes. "Well, seeing as the place locked up tighter than a Nar Shaddaa virgin, that's probably our only way in." she said, sounding a little annoyed at their limited options. "Kyra?"

Kyra remained silent for a few seconds, caught up in the sights of the base. "…Yeah, let's head through maintenance." she submitted, and the group headed to the closest access point – a manhole in the lot behind their building. Actually _navigating_ the tunnels was a pain, but was thankfully eased significantly by their proximity to the base. Each access point into the base was marked with a Pather symbol that had to have been freshly sprayed over the walls. After some light guesswork, they figured that the closest access point led directly into the left wing of the main building.

"Ready?" Nax asked, one hand on the ladder and the other at his side. The girls gave him a nod, and he began to climb up. Once he reached the hatch, he pushed it up ever so gently, and was immediately met with a flurry of blaster fire, sending him back into hiding. "So, stealth's not an option." he dryly commented. Silently, Kyra pulled out her CR-2, checked and charged it, and then threw it up to Nax. He easily caught it and pushed the cover back up, spraying wildly around the room before fully coming out, double tapping most of the bodies, except for one Pather who was clutching his wounds and weakly trying to reach for his blaster, which Nax kicked away.

The Pather was scrawny, and probably young. Definitely scared for his life, though, so Nax wrapped his hand around his neck and applied the smallest amount of pressure to the kid's windpipe. "Hey, buddy." Nax said coldly, forcing himself into the Pather's vision. "Tell me where your leader is, and I _won't_ crush your throat."

The Pather choked under what probably felt like a vice grip as the girls and Sidewinder came out from the hole. He opened his mouth, but didn't give Nax what he wanted. "…Go suck a Trando, hunter!" the boy cursed. Merely annoyed with the insult, Nax tightened his grip, and the kid squirmed, fighting and slapping at Nax's arm. "B-Basement! He's in the basement! Down the hall and to the right, across from the front door!"

Nax smiled underneath his helmet as Kyra came up behind him. "Thank you." he said gratefully, before turning to Kyra. "Do you want the honors?" he questioned, and without saying anything else, Kyra drew the '44 and shot the kid in the face with a stun blast, knocking him out. Getting up, Nax handed her the CR-2 back, and she tucked it into her jacket. "So, he's in the basement. Every Pather on base is probably scrambling to get here."

Lexi checked her blaster one last time. "Well, we don't want to keep them waiting, do we?" she joked, giving off a cocky smirk. Nax headed for the door, DC raised, and he opened it, sticking two shots into the unlucky Pather that was waiting in front of the door. They quickly moved through and fanned out, clearing out a fireteam of Pathers that had been waiting for them. Heading down the hallway like they had been told, intermittent groups of Pathers would run into their blaster fire and be quickly cut down. If these were what the leadership considered their top men, none of them were impressed.

After clearing more groups of Pathers, they found the basement and descended, keeping their heads on a swivel for potential targets, the stairs leading out into a long hallway that seemed to run underneath the main yard. Rooms were aligned symmetrically along the sides of the hall, but what they were interested in was the one at the end. If the leader was in there, he had nowhere to go, and if he wasn't, well, there were plenty more rooms to look for him in.

As Nax and Kyra pushed through the door at the end of the hallway, a secondary door shot straight down and sealed Lexi and Sidewinder off from the others, nearly crushing Kyra and Nax in the process. "Son of a-" Nax cursed, turning back to get a look at their current predicament. Lexi was banging on the door in a vain effort to get it open, and Sidewinder evidently tried to slice it, but quickly gave up.

"Is there any way for you to get it open from your side?" Lexi shouted, barely audible under the door's soundproofing. The both of them quickly looked around and found no such panel – the door was remotely controlled, probably in the room where the head Pather was.

Nax shook his head to answer her question. "Go ahead and see if you can't find an escape vehicle! We'll catch up with you!" he ordered, and Lexi nodded, turning back up the stairwell to hopefully find an easy way to escape the nest they'd just kicked. "We'd better get moving, too." Nax commented, heading deeper into the room and finding another door.

The pair pushed through to find that this new room was pitch black, and before either of them could turn their thermals on, the lights kicked on. The place was very obviously a main control center of sorts – there was a terminal in the center of the room that had security footage playing from all across the facility, and standing in front of the terminal was most likely the Pather leader, wearing robes in his group's standard colors, although with a little bit of an elegant trim applied to it.

At the sound of their weapons being readied, the Pather turned around and faced them. "Ah, guests. Had I known you were coming, I would have set the table beforehand. How rude of me to not prepare." he said calmly and methodically. "Is it dead or alive?"

Nax tightened his grip on the DC. "For everything you've put me and my friends through?" he responded, pausing for a second. "Dead sounds pretty nice."

The Pather shook his head. "I'm afraid that _won't_ be happening." he retorted, before stretching his hand out. "Your weapons, please." the Pather offered. Before they could say anything in response, all of their blasters flew from their holsters or out of their hands and right to the Pather. "Ah, I almost forgot – a two on one fight isn't very sporting, much less two Mandalorians against myself." the Pather went on, directing his hand out towards Nax and pulling it into a fist. Nax was slowly lifted off of his feet, making hisses of pain and confusion, before he was flung clear across the room into a pile of rusted storage containers by absolutely nothing. Kyra stared, slackjawed. "Now, then." the Pather finally finished. "Let us dance, young lady."

Kyra braced for combat as the Pather pulled out a small metal rod, and with a snap-hiss, a white-orange energy blade came out of it, and the Pather charged her.

* * *

Lexi sped through the right wing of the building as fast as she could. She knew there was a garage here, somewhere – she had seen it from the outside. She quickly pulled herself into a corner, blaster ready to fire as a squad of Pathers ran down the hallway, oblivious to her presence. Quickly trying to get a handle on her breathing, Lexi sprinted at full speed down the corridors, glancing into side doors for any sign of the garage, or at least, a mechanic's area.

Eventually, she found what she was looking for, and practically kicked the door in, and she got a very good look at what the Path had for vehicles. A few AT-RTs, refitted to match an AT-ST's firepower, but the real star of what they had was a refitted Saber tank, situated right in the middle of the room. The blaster cannons on the side had been upgraded to dualies, and the missile pods visibly bulged out of their compartment. Even the top laser turret where the commander normally sat had been touched – replaced with a massive kinetic cannon that seemed to bend under its own weight.

Quickly checking her surroundings for Pathers, Lexi ran over to the tank and climbed on, going in through the commander's hatch. What she expected was a completely empty tank – what she got was someone punching her in the face and knocking her to the floor. Partially dazed, Lexi pointed her blaster at the hatch as she got up.

Rising out of the commander's hatch was a woman in a cloak. "Surprised?" she remarked, very much amused with how easy it was to sucker punch Lexi. "You know, for a freelance slicer, you don't seem to be able to grasp the concept of subtlety, Sapphyra." the woman continued.

Now she had Lexi's attention. "How the hell do you know my name?" she questioned, tightening her grip on her blaster. The woman simply laughed, before pulling out a tigerclaw knife and twirling it around her fingers like an overly cocky gunslinger.

"Have you been living under a rock, Sapphyra? Your face was all over the news when we bombed that cantina. It wasn't exactly hard to do a check on who you were." she went on, pausing for a second. "…Sorry, when _I_ bombed the cantina." the woman corrected smugly.

In that moment, something clicked inside of Lexi's mind. She was staring at the person who had killed her dad. At first, she was frozen in shock, but hate and anger quickly overrode that, until she was practically seeing red. "You." Lexi said with a cold malice.

The woman raised an eyebrow under all of her gear. "Yes, me. I bombed the cantina and killed your dad. Would you like a treat for figuring that one out?" she taunted, resting her hand against her hips. "Stars, I knew you Zeltrons were all freakshow dopamine addicts, but you're really taking it to a whole new level, Sapphyra."

Lexi narrowed her eyes at the woman. "You have no idea what hell I'm about to put you through, you _murderer._ "

"Bring it on, xeno."

* * *

The Pather had been probing at Kyra's defenses with his energy blade for a while now – testing her reaction times and footwork, gauging how best to approach the situation, which was rather a moot point, since Kyra was unarmed. Clearly, he had something else planned for her, and Kyra's suspicions were soon proven correct.

"Why do you continue to resist?" the Pather questioned as he continued probing her, not even taking his attention from the mockery of a duel he had engaged in. "I sense great potential in you, young lady. More than I sense in either of your partners. Why lower yourself to their level, when you could join me and have more power than you could ever dream of?"

Kyra had begun to get into a rhythm for avoiding his probing. Sidestep here, duck there, and so on, like it was practically second nature to her. "Why the hell would I want power, let alone from a scumsucking terrorist like you?"

"Then why fight?" he questioned again, poking the blade dangerously close to her neck. "You have nothing else to gain here. Just a few lowly bounty hunters, not even chasing a payday. You have nothing to gain and everything to lose." the Pather went on. "We stand to gain far more together if you simply gave up and joined me." he continued. Kyra paused for a second, as if to give him the mere inkling of a thought that she was actually going to do that. Loosening her shoulders a little and easing up, the Pather smirked under his mask as he lowered his weapon. "I knew you would see reas-" he tried to get out, before Kyra socked him with the strongest right hook she could muster.

"Here's a counter-offer for you – go to hell!" Kyra replied, ready to strike him again.

The Pather stared off to the side wall, as if Kyra had just insulted his entire bloodline. He wiped his face off with his hand once, turned to look back at Kyra, and raised his blade overhead. "So be it." he said simply. Seeing an opening, Kyra moved to pounce on him, but something kept her feet locked down. Realizing she had no other options, Kyra raised her arms overhead in a vain attempt to protect herself, but when the blade hit her armor, it was caught against the plating, sparks flying in all directions from the blade, until the weapon just shorted out entirely, catching the Pather off his guard. "Beskar." he hissed. In that brief lapse of concentration, the weight holding Kyra down disappeared, and she took the chance to begin pummeling him as much as she could before he could correct his very severe mistake.

* * *

Lexi and Reika circled each other, knives at the ready. Both of them were bleeding pretty bad, drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. "Is that all you've got, hedo?" Reika hissed, taunting Lexi by twirling the blade around her ring finger. Right beside Reika was Lexi's blaster – Reika disarmed her of it early on in the fight, and there was no way she could reach it without getting shanked in the back.

Lexi wiped the blood on her face off onto her sleeve, utterly static in her expression. Reika grunted and beckoned Lexi to attack her, to which she obliged. Not surprised that she had taken the bait, Reika went to sweep her off of her legs and end the fight, only for Lexi to actually jump over her legs. Thinking fast, Reika kicked her leg up to catch Lexi midair, knocking the wind out of her and putting her on the floor.

Standing back up, Reika tightened her grip on her knife and walked over to where Lexi was, her weak attempts at getting back up being utterly crushed when Reika placed her boot firmly on her chest. "That was pathetic. You're not even worth finishing off with my blade." she said disdainfully, crouching low and stabbing Lexi in the stomach with her knife, before getting on top of her, ready to strangle Lexi to death.

Between Reika's hands wrapped around her neck and the knife stuck in her gut, Lexi struggled to force Reika's grip off with what little strength she had left. As her vision started to blur and darken, Lexi stopped struggling and reached into Reika's jacket for something, anything, that could save her. Her hands found cold metal in the shape of a grip, and as fast as she could, she pulled the weapon from its holster, pointed it at Reika's stomach, and pulled the trigger.

Reika's iron grip on Lexi's neck faded almost instantly. She stared straight at – no, _through_ Lexi, before gurgling something inaudible, clutching at the growing red stain in her stomach, and falling backwards, twisting over on to her stomach. Gasping for air, Lexi's vision returned, and she moved back away from the dying Reika. Her next immediate concern was the knife stuck in her gut, so she grabbed the grip, counted down from three, and yanked the blade out, hissing in pain as blood spurted from the wound and on to the floor.

As she recovered, she saw Reika trying to crawl away to safety. "You're not getting away that easy, _monster_." Lexi threatened in an ice-cold tone, before getting up, twisting the blade around, and stabbing Reika in the back of her foot and pulling her back. Once she was close enough, Reika turned over and tried to protect herself, but Lexi's quiet rage helped her power through, and soon enough, Reika would be crying, pleading for mercy, and begging for her life to be spared as Lexi hacked away madly at her.

She had no intention of sparing Lexi in the first place, so it only made sense to return the favor.

When Lexi was done and Reika had fallen silent, Lexi leaned against the Saber tank, clutching her wound. She took one look at the bloody mess that used to be her father's killer, and then to the blade that was still dripping her blood. A pit slowly developed in Lexi's stomach, and she felt like she was about to throw up. Not from the injuries, from the realization of what she had just done.

She had it coming, but the sole act of butchering her like an animal disgusted Lexi like nothing else could, and she only had herself to blame. At least her father's killer was dead.

* * *

The Pather leader managed to pull away from Kyra's onslaught. "Enough of this game!" he hissed, reaching his hand out towards Kyra, and that same feeling of being locked up overwhelmed her. "I have tried to be reasonable – merciful, even, but you are clearly not worth the effort." he chided in frustration, raising his blade overhead. "Die." he said, swinging the blade downwards over Kyra's head.

Before the blade could connect, there were three loud gunshots, causing the Pather to stop dead in his swing as dark stains of red began to spread all over his robes. Slowly turning around to face his aggressor, he was met with one final slug to the head, tumbling over back to Kyra's feet. Nax had, evidently, recovered from his throw and rummaged in the storage containers while the Pather was occupied, and managed to find a loaded slug pistol.

Getting up and dusting himself off, Nax threw the weapon by the wayside as he went to retrieve their weapons. "You know, I'm getting real sick of these types. Hate being out of a fight like that." Nax remarked as he kicked the dead Pather over onto his stomach, before tossing Kyra's '44 to her, which she caught. "You good?"

Kyra's initial surprise at just how casual Nax was about the whole ordeal quickly wore off. "Armor's burnt pretty bad." she responded, showing him the scorched bracers. "I'm fine otherwise. What about you? That was one hell of a fall you took."

Nax shrugged as he turned to the terminal the Pather had been standing in front of. "Bruised and battered, but I can still shoot straight." he replied as he disabled whatever security barriers would have been in their way to the garage. "We need to get a move on – don't want to keep Lexi waiting."

Kyra nodded and checked her '44, and as she was about to motion for Nax to follow her, something rolled to her feet. She looked down and saw that it was the Pather's energy sword, she briefly appraised it and after deciding that it may be worth something, she grabbed it before they left.

The run to the garage was actually rather uneventful, all things considered, with only a few groups of Pathers to mop up. Considering the size of the place, this sparked suspicion in the back of their minds, but basically being let go free was hard to complain about. When they actually got to the garage, they saw both Lexi leaning against a Saber tank, blood slowly pooling around her, and a mangled corpse not very far from her.

The pair immediately ran to her side, and Sidewinder came out from underneath a workbench nearby, eager to help however he could. Lexi coughed as she came back to consciousness and looked up to Nax through her matted hair with tired, dying eyes. "…Hey guys." she barely hacked out, her voice low and weak. "I found you a ride."

Nax immediately pulled out a bacta syringe and injected it into Lexi to stabilize her. "What the hell happened?" he demanded to know, putting pressure on her wounds to stem the bleeding while the bacta did its work.

With her arm shaking, Lexi barely managed to point at the corpse. "I killed the bitch that took my dad from me." she said coldly, before wincing in pain and throwing her hands on her stomach. "I was just going to shoot her, but then she clued me in that _she_ was the one that planted the bomb. She tried to taunt and terrorize me, and I just lost it."

Nax and Kyra exchanged glances. "We need to get you to a bacta tank, and fast." he said, before reaching under Lexi and picking her up. Kyra vaulted on top of the tank and opened the hatch so that Nax could let Lexi down inside, and then they followed her in. Nax poked at the controls briefly. "How the hell do I…" he trailed, before flipping a switch that caused the tank's repulsors to kick on. "There we go." he finished as Sidewinder entered through the hatch and settled himself next to Lexi. After messing with the controls, Nax found that the Saber controlled a lot like his old landspeeder did, and muscle memory quickly kicked in.

Hovering his thumbs over the triggers, Nax pressed down, and four blaster cannon rounds shot into the garage door, slagging it and throwing it down into the courtyard, revealing what may as well have been a platoon's worth of Pathers, staring at a few of their friends that had just gotten crushed under the door. The pause was short-lived, however, and the hull of the tank was quickly pelted by weapons fire, both energy and projectile, and Nax sped the tank out from where it was stored.

Instead of taking the time to precisely aim his shots, Nax just held the trigger down and pointed the front of the tank into the crowds, letting the cannon blasts do most of the work for him. In around twenty seconds worth of blaster cannon fire, the platoon had been reduced from nearly full strength to just a handful of survivors that were scrambling to get away from the tank. Now that the immediate threat had been dealt with, Nax turned his attention to the cargo containers in the courtyard, and began firing round after round into them, the hot plasma chewing through durasteel with ease. He repeatedly hit containers with explosive materials inside – ammunition, fuel cells, whatever. It was all gone, now.

Before long, the entire yard was going up in flames, and Nax felt a buzz in his ear from his commlink. "Arfive! You there?" he questioned, receiving a series of panicked twitters in response. "Kyra and I are fine, but Lexi's bleeding out pretty badly!" he briefed over the comms, not really caring about security anymore. "Warm up the engines, I'll be at the ship in a few minutes after I finish tearing the hell out of this base!" Nax ordered, receiving an affirmative gurgle as the commlink was cut.

With the yard burning to slag, that left the building itself. Looking up in his seat, Nax found a switch designated as 'Ordinance' and guessed that it was tied either to the cannon on top of the tank, or the rocket pods on the sides. Banking on the latter, Nax flipped it, and the tank lurched slightly as the pods lifted up, carrying a significantly larger load of rockets than designed for. Once again, Nax hovered his thumbs over the triggers and pressed down, sending rockets into the center building and blasting out huge chunks of duracrete. Satisfied with the damage incurred, Nax kept firing rockets at the building without a care in the world, and on his last salvo, the rockets penetrated deep enough that they actually hit something of importance – a gas line, or maybe an auxillary generator. Whatever it was, it rocked the entire block and the next five after it with an earth-shattering explosion that blew glass into shards, set off landspeeder alarms, and turned the entire Pather base into one catastrophic fireball.

Lexi had apparently been watching Nax unleash hell on the Pathers from the viewplate on the tank, barely conscious. "…Nice fireworks, Nax." she complimented, before passing out from her lack of blood, giving Nax a renewed sense of urgency. Kicking the tank's repulsors to their limit, Nax blew through the ruined gate and down the street for the next ten blocks. The Pathers had been dealt with, but Lexi needed urgent medical attention, and he'd already spent too much time finishing off the Pathers. Ignoring whatever counted for speeder traffic in the wake of an explosion that large, Nax rode the tank up to an alleyway that led to a large, open area that was big enough for the freighter to fit in. Throwing the hatch above him up, Nax grabbed Lexi and lifted her out of the tank, before getting out himself, while Kyra jumped out of the commander's hatch.

Together, they carried Lexi to the ship and brought her on-board. Kyra shouldered Lexi and took her to the crew lounge to try and get her stable with what they had on hand, while Nax bolted for the cockpit. "Arfive!" he shouted, already in his seat and readying the ship by the time he finished saying that singular word. "Set a course back to Hiver territory, we need to get Lexi to a bacta tank!" he ordered, and Arfive gurgled out a confirmatory chirp as he plugged in to the ship and plotted a course for the closest Hiver-held area.

* * *

Nax and Kyra practically barreled through the front door to the Hiver medical facility, Lexi passed out on their shoulders. Her bleeding had stopped, but she didn't have enough blood running through her to survive much longer. Thankfully, whoever was at the front desk was whatever the Hivers considered a medical 'professional', and he pulled the group to the back of the building, took Lexi off of their hands, and got her prepped for the tank. Now, all they had to do was wait and hope she made it through.

As he grew ever more impatient and frustrated, Nax's mind was left to wander. He briefly went over everything that had happened since they got to Coruscant – the heist against the Synthskins, the Path's resurgence and the release of Mau Sanir, Bullen's murders.

…He had almost forgotten about Bullen, and cursed himself when he realized the trail had probably long since gone cold.

Eventually, his thoughts drifted to his conversation with Lexi the other day. _"Don't you think you would be happier if you weren't so… detached?"_ Lexi's voice echoed. He couldn't answer her immediately, but having had time to mull over that question, especially now, Nax had come to the conclusion that maybe, just maybe, that he could afford to let his act fade.

Kyra noticed Nax's expression and leaned over on to him. "Don't worry, she'll be fine." she reassured, her voice barely above a whisper. In return, Nax leaned over and wrapped his arm around her.

"It's not Lexi that I'm worried about, Kyra." he responded, taking her hand into his and gently squeezing it. "It's just that, well, I've been thinking about something she and I talked about a few days ago." Nax revealed. "About me keeping you two at a distance and just staying as friends and business partners and not, you know, wanting to get closer to you."

Kyra raised an eyebrow and looked up at Nax. "Getting closer?" she questioned with an incredulous look. "Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"Not necessarily romantically close, but closer as in something more than just work partners and acquaintances." he elaborated, trying to save face so that Kyra didn't think he was getting too ahead of himself.

Kyra pursed her lips. "Why do you think you've been doing that?" she pressed, and Nax looked down at her with an expression that told her she already knew why. Kyra frowned at the realization, and leaned a bit further into Nax to try and comfort him.

They'd had a long day, and there was an even longer night ahead of them. It would probably be best to get some rest.

The two of them fell asleep together, practically in each other's arms.

* * *

 **That's this chapter done, and Coruscant is now more or less done. Next chapter is just tying up loose ends, and then it's off to the next arc. Again, I'd like to apologize for the two-month wait without an update – I don't normally fuck up my schedule** _ **that**_ **bad, but I was super lazy with actually writing the chapter on top of the stress of a job application that went nowhere and my driver's permit being a thing.**

 **So uh, oops.**

 **Anyways, since Coruscant is now done, I'd like to take the time to bring out the original plotline before I involved Tekti, Kelah, the Path, and the Ascendancy. While it is partially deleted now, I haven't touched the file in many months, so here's a rundown of the original Coruscant arc.**

 **The gist of it is that a lot Coruscant was going to center on the AI heist at the very beginning. The Hutt that the Hivers sold the AI to would have actually snitched on the Hivers due to being part of a rival organization, and Underworld Police would go on a field day wrecking their shit. Eath, Vopa, and the three of them would have then struck back at the Hutt's holdings to cripple him financially as a final "fuck you" of sorts, and once that was over and done with, Vopa would've left. Then, another member of the Hivers would have contacted the group with information on the Stormtroopers at the Synthskin place, with said Stormtroopers being the personal detail of a Senator on Naboo that had some rather scandalous investments, namely owning a brothel. When the three of them would have been figuring out how to get in, they would have found out about a Zygerrian slave trader who was dissatisfied with her cut of the Senator's profits, and after approaching her, would smuggle the girls in to case the place and start bringing in weapons to give to the slaves there. They would have also discovered a ring of about 20 other Senators involved, and once everything was out in public, the Senators would be recalled to Coruscant while the RSF raided the place. The Zygerrian would then call in a favor with them to segue into the next arc of the story.**

 **So, what changed?**

 **Short answer, I watched JJBA Part 4 and played a lot of Starsector, plus some Deus Ex/Warhammer stuff got the Ascendancy in a bigger spotlight than initially intended. While I'm very happy with the current product despite being very dead-set on the original plotline, I've come to realize that what I had planned out not only probably would've been shit (as things tend to be when fanfiction writers handle something like what I just described) but also very juvenile. For example, the whole point of Kyra and Lexi being smuggled into the place raised a lot of problems for me story wise. Is Nax the one pushing for them to be brought in by the Zygerrian? If so, what the fuck am I doing, because that goes against what he's done so far. Is he against it, but are the girls fine with it? So on and so forth, shit like that. None of it was good, and I'm glad I didn't go with it, cause this would have gone on from chapter 10 to like, 24.**

 **Until next time.**

 **-Tweak**


End file.
